Guide to protecting your design in New Zealand

If you design something new, you can stop others from copying your design in several ways. Patents, copyright, trade marks and registered designs all provide different types of protection for new designs. A registered design specifically protects a manufactured article with visually-apparent design features.

This information sheet sets out details on protecting your design in New Zealand, including the range of products and visual features that designs can protect, whether your design qualifies for legal protection, the importance of keeping your design a secret, how the design registration process works, how long a registered design lasts, and how to stop others from using your registered design.