Designs and Models

– Patent and Designs Ordinance, 1924. (Note: up to August 2023)
– Designs Regulations, 1925. (Note: up to August 2023)
– Designs Law, 2017, in force since August 7, 2018.
– Designs Regulations, 2019, in force since January 30, 2019.
– Designs Regulations (Implementation of the Hague Agreement), 5788-2019, in force since December 15, 2019.

– Paris Convention for the Protection of industrial Property, Stockholm Act.
– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since April 26, 1970.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since August 14, 1978.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since April 21, 1995.
– Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, Geneva Act, as of January 3, 2020.

Applicant: any person (including corporate body) owning the design. 

Kinds of designs: a product or part thereof, consisting of one or more visual features, including contour, color, shape, ornamentation, texture or material they are made from, and including a set of articles, packaging, an icon (including animated icons) and screen display. An industrial design shall be protected if it is new and has individual character.

Novelty: a design is considered new if, before the date of application or priority (if any), no identical design, or a design that differs only in non-essential details, has been made available to the public anywhere in the world. 

Individual character: an industrial design shall have individual character if the overall impression it produces on the informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any industrial design, which has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application or the date of priority.

Novelty grace period: there is a twelve-month grace period from a first public disclosure of the design prior to the effective filing date of the application, but only with respect to publications by the design owner or as a result of information originating from the design owner, whether the information was obtained lawfully or unlawfully and only with respect to publications occurring after August 7, 2018.

Exclusions: (a) the appearance of a product or part thereof dictated solely by the product function; (b) the appearance of a product or part thereof intended to be connected or incorporated into another product or where the other product is incorporated therein; (c) the appearance of a product or part thereof that must be manufactured exactly in the form and dimensions in which they were produced in order for their function to be performed as stated; (d) designs that violate public policy; (e) designs that include a typeface (e.g. font) or a computer program; (f) designs in Locarno class 32.

Series applications: multiple design applications may be filed, but should be divided into separate single design applications, either at the time of filing (if filing fees for each design have been paid), or at the commencement of the examination process (if filing fees for each design have not been paid). In both cases, each design will be examined independently. However, two or more articles of the same general character that are ordinarily on sale together or intended to be used together and sharing the same design may be protected in a single application as a "set". An International Design Registration (filed based on the Hague Agreement) comprising a number of designs will be recorded as the corresponding number of single design applications each having its own application number.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. The name of the applicant of the application and an address in Israel for service of documents;
2. An explanation of how the applicant came to be the owner of the design (by virtue of law, assignment);
3. Power of attorney, signed by the applicant without legalization;
4. Class and subclass of the product;
5. A graphic representation of the design;
6. Confirmation of fee payment;
7. Publication Statement comprising the date when an article/product with the design was first marketed and/or otherwise made available to the public, or a confirmation that the design has not been published twelve months prior to the date of application or priority (if any), therefor.

Optionally, the application may also contain:
8. A written description explaining the representation of the design;
9. A request for deferment of publication (for a period not exceeding six months from the application filing date);
10. Priority claim, supported by an unlegalized certified copy of the priority document or DAS code, which may be filed after the filing date of the application;
11. Names of the designers.

Electronic filing: the above documents may be filed electronically, using digital copies. 

Note: the application, including the visual description, shall be published on the ILPO website normally shortly after its filing, unless deferment of publication has been requested (see item 9 above).

For a change of name:
1. An official certificate confirming the change of name, issued by the relevant authority in the country of incorporation, or an official publication of the change, or a notarial confirmation regarding the implementation of the change, confirming that the change was recorded by the appropriate authorities in the country of incorporation (no legalization required and a scanned copy is sufficient);
2. Power of attorney in the new name, simply signed and a scanned copy is sufficient.

For a change of address: no documents are required.

EXAMINATION, PROTECTION

Examination: as to form, novelty and unity. There is a period of twelve months (normally extendible by up to three months) to complete the examination, from the date of first Official Notification comprising Examiner's objection(s) (including a multiple-design objection). A response to the Official Notification must be submitted within three months from the issue date of the Official Notification(s) (extendible). For divisional applications the twelve months are calculated from the date of the first Official Notification issued for the parent application. In the examination procedure, the Examiner may rely on, among others, documents submitted by a third party.

Publication: all documents related to the application are published on the ILPO website. 

Registration: if the design has been deemed eligible for registration, the Registrar shall register it in the Registry and publish its details on the ILPO website, including its visual description, and issue a certificate of registration. The certificate is issued in electric format only, however, it is possible to request the certificate in paper format with no additional fees.

Duration: five years from the date of application. 

Extension: for designs that were filed prior to August 7, 2018: the period of validity can be extended three times, by two terms of five years each, and an additional third term of three years (eighteen years in total); for designs that were filed as of August 7, 2018: the period of validity can be extended four times, by five-year periods each (twenty-five years in total). 

Renewal: at the end of each period of protection, with a six-month grace period. For designs that were filed as of August 7, 2018, it is also possible, at the end of the first term, to pay renewal fees for the rest of the periods. 

Infringement: civil action, criminal action and/or administrative action, i.e. customs detention are available against infringers.

Assignment, licenses, mortgages: design rights may be assigned in whole or in part. An agreement for the assignment of design rights or granting an exclusive license for such rights needs to be in writing, although this requirement is declarative rather than constitutive. Such agreement needs to be recorded in the Official Designs Register in order to be binding upon third parties.

Unregistered design rights: a design may be protected as an unregistered design if it is new and of individual character, provided that the design was offered for sale or distributed to the public in Israel in a commercial manner, including online, by the design owner or on its behalf, within six months of the first publication date of the design worldwide. The term of protection of an unregistered design is three years from its first publication date.