Griffith Hack will be hosting two online events as part of Melbourne Design Week 2022, focusing on the areas of ethical design, and the latest updates in designs and copyright laws.
On Tuesday 22 March, Edith Hamilton will lead a panel discussion with Dr Justine Lacey, Lou Tabacchiera and Elisa Nicolleti looking at how IP protection can support ethical design. Then on Wednesday 23 March, Jennifer Wyndham-Wheeler, Bridget Renehan and David Braund will provide updates on Designs Law reforms and use easy-to-understand scenarios on what this means for designers across several areas of application.
Both sessions are free to register – find out more secure your place via the links below.
Can intellectual property protection support ethical design?
Tuesday 22 March | 12:15 – 1:30pm
Ethical design – design that strives for greater societal good – should be fostered. Commercial pressures can influence the ability of designers and innovators to pursue environmentally sustainable products and processes. In order to support design with a positive environmental and social impact on the planet, there need to be mechanisms that address those commercial pressures. This event, held in the form of a discussion between a panel of industry leaders, brings together different perspectives on ethical and sustainable design and shares with the audience how it can be supported and grown in Victoria with intellectual property fostering collaboration.
The discussion will cover a variety of issues including:
• Whether protecting ideas can be a driver for ethical design across the sector;
• The frameworks for supporting ethical design, such as investing in greater product longevity, sustainable materials and sustainable manufacturing;
• How to facilitate investment in new, sustainable methods of production and keep these methods and techniques in Victoria;
• How to facilitate collaboration between individual designers and larger companies while protecting the ideas each party ‘brings to the table’; and
• How to maintain the integrity of the design (e.g. anti-counterfeiting) and the design process so that it increases the value of the design and production industry in Victoria.
Must-knows for designing must-haves: Designs & copyright law 2022
Wednesday 23 March | 10:15 – 11:30am
Griffith Hack takes designers through the ABCs of Designs and Copyright Law, including the pitfalls where these laws overlap in Australia and how designers can navigate around these areas. Griffith Hack will provide updates on the Designs Law reforms and use easy-to-understand scenarios on what this means for designers across several areas of application. For example, the grace period and infringement exemption for industrial designers who have used or taken definite steps to use a comparable design before the priority date. This will be particularly timely given the reforms are due to take effect in March 2022.
Also coming into the conversation is the UK-Australia free trade agreement through which Australia has agreed in principle to ratify the Hague Agreement (industrial designs). This session will explore the likelihood of this happening, and how Australia’s acceptance of the Hague Agreement may benefit designers. For example, those provisions may offer a longer term of protection for designs and protection of partial designs and virtual designs. Griffith Hack will explain what this means to designers by presenting real-life examples, including the gaming and digital design space who may benefit from these reforms from an IP stance.
This session is presented by some of Griffith Hack’s senior Patent Attorney and Legal team, holding deep experience from working closely with world-leading local and international designers and brands.
Melbourne Design Week 2022 is an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV. To find out more, visit https://designweek.melbourne/
