The Power of Visual Appeal: Designs Law and Clean Energy

Sainsbury, Maree

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-2155-9_12

The Power of Visual Appeal: Designs Law and Clean Energy

Maree Sainsbury²

Chapter
First Online: 26 October 2018

1642 Accesses

Abstract

The visual features of a clean energy product play an important role in promoting consumer desirability and sentiment, expanding the market for clean energy products and enhancing public buy-in. In the context of clean energy products, the visual features will be a secondary consideration to the functional features of the product. This chapter will outline the importance of visual features, and illustrate how they can be used to expand and consolidate a market for clean energy products. The registered designs system is one mechanism which could be used to secure rights in visual appearance. However, the designs system is underutilised in general, and particularly problematic where is comes to products where the primary consideration is the function. This chapter will outline the importance of design rights in the context of clean energy products and how these rights would assist in supporting the creators of such products and achieving policy aims with respect to clean energy. It will examine potential obstacles to effective protection, with some suggestions for improvement of the law.

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Notes

1.
Fry (2009).
2.
Heskett (1994).
3.
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed at Paris on March 20, 1883.
4.
Hague Agreement concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs 1935.
5.
Article 5quinquies of the Paris Convention 1883.
6.
Designs Act 2003 (Cth), s 5 definition of ‘design’.
7.
Designs Act 2003 (Cth), s 7.
8.
Designs Act 2003 (Cth), s 15.
9.
Designs Act 2003 (Cth).
10.
Australian Law Reform Commission (1995).
11.
Kwanghui et al (2014).
12.
Hartmen and Stafford (2013).
13.
For example, products designed to reduce personal energy or water consumption.
14.
Such as a long life light bulb.
15.
Kwanghui et al (2014).
16.
Caird and Roy (2008).
17.
Caird and Roy (2008).
18.
Caird and Roy (2008).
19.
Although they had been in use since 1835. There is debate over whether Edison infringed existing patents held by William Sawyer and Albon Man, who received a U.S. patent for the incandescent lamp (http://energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb).
20.
Shaver (2012). In Consolidated Electric Light Co. v. McKeesport Light Co., 159 U.S. 465 (1895) (the Incandescent Lamp Patent case), Edison was accused of infringing the patent holder’s rights in a bamboo filament bulb. The patent was found to be invalid. Edison also engaged in litigation to protect his innovations.
21.
See http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/bios/hewitt.htm.
22.
Shaver (2012).
23.
Shaver (2012).
24.
See IP Australia, http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/adds2/adds.adds_simple_search.paint_simple_search?p_ref_search=TRUE.
25.
See World Intellectual Property Organization, http://www.wipo.int/designdb/en/index.jsp (as at 30 November 2017).
26.
Although, generally, solar is a better option. See http://www.energymatters.com.au/wind-turbines-c-149.html.
27.
Caird and Roy (2008).
28.
Gross (2007).
29.
Lothian (2008).
30.
Lothian (2008).
31.
Lothian (2008).
32.
New Atlas (2017). Cf Nelson (2013).
33.
Gross (2007).
34.
Smith and McDonough (2001).
35.
Gross (2007).
36.
IP Australia, http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/adds2/adds.adds_results.paint_results?p_message=N (as at 30 November 2017).
37.
World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/designdb/en/index.jsp (as at 30 November 2017).
38.
Productivity Commission (2016).
39.
Productivity Commission (2016).
40.
For example, s 10 of the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) grants rights only to the registered owner.
41.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of September 9, 1886, Article 5(2).
42.
Elkin-Koren (2013).
43.
Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), ss 74-77A. In particular, section 75 provides that, where copyright subsists in an artistic work, and a corresponding design has been registered, it is not an infringement of copyright to reproduce the copyright work by embodying that, or any other, corresponding design in a product.
44.
Copyright Amendment Bill 1988 (Cth), Explanatory Memorandum, Commonwealth of Australia.
45.
Burge v Swarbrick (2007) 232 CLR 336.
46.
Per Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Kirby, Heydon and Crennan JJ at para 7.
47.
Denicola (1983), at para 76.
48.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK), s 213.
49.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK), s 216.
50.
The unregistered Community design right lasts for three years from the date the design was made available to the public. European Council Regulation (EC) no 6/2002.
51.
At para 8.2.
52.
Monotti and Ricketson (2003).
53.
Australian Law Reform Commission (1995), Productivity Commission (2016).
54.
Patents Act 1990 (Cth) s 135.
55.
Larker and Tayan (2011).
56.
Crane (2016).
57.
Cornell and Damodaran (2014).
58.
Baker and Wurgler (2007).
59.
Tesla Inc., Annual Report on Form 10-K for the Year Ended December 31, 2016. Part I, Item 1.
60.
Part I, Item 1 ‘Technology’.
61.
Ibid.
62.
Contreras (2015).
63.
Jia et al. (2014).
64.
ETF Daily News (2014).
65.
Mangram (2012).
66.
Aden and Barry (2008, p. 296).
67.
Ibid., p. 297.
68.
Ibid., p. 304.
69.
Ibid., p. 304.
70.
Ibid., p. 304.
71.
Gairthwaite (2011).
72.
Aden and Barry (2008, p. 307).
73.
Sheth et al. (1991).
74.
Sheth et al. (1991).
75.
Advisory Council on Intellectual Property, 11.10.
76.
Advisory Council on Intellectual Property, 11.10.
77.
See Aden and Barry (2008, pp. 336–337).
78.
World Intellectual Property Organisation, Statistical Country Profiles, Australia, 2016, http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistics/country_profile/profile.jsp?code=AU.

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Burge v Swarbrick (2007) 232 CLR 336
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Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
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University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia
Maree Sainsbury

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Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Matthew Rimmer

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Sainsbury, M. (2018). The Power of Visual Appeal: Designs Law and Clean Energy. In: Rimmer, M. (eds) Intellectual Property and Clean Energy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2155-9_12

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2155-9_12
Published: 26 October 2018
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2154-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2155-9
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