Design rights protect the visual features of products – shape, configuration, pattern and ornamentation – that differentiate goods in the marketplace. For a design to be eligible for protection, it must be new and distinctive – not similar in its overall impression to other designs that constitute prior art.
Registered design rights, pending certification, give their owners an exclusive right to use, license and commercialise the design for up to 10 years. In markets where consumer choice is shaped by appearance as much as functionality, design protection plays a direct role in competition, pricing power and export positioning.
Three key trends stand out in the 2025 data:
- Record application and registration volumes
- A sharp recovery in US-origin filings after 2 subdued years, led by growth in food and clothing design classes
- Continued growth in design activity from China in transport and appliance categories.
Overall trends: record applications and registrations
In 2025, design applications increased by 7.1% to 10,296 — a new record, reaching 38.0% above pre-pandemic levels.
Registrations also reached a record high, increasing by 9.9% to 9,727. Certifications declined modestly (–1.8% to 1,448) but remain close to the historically high levels recorded in 2024.
In the design rights system:
- registration secures priority and establishes a formal claim over visual appearance
- certification is more closely tied to enforcement and commercial dispute contexts.
The stability in certification volumes suggests that while filing activity has grown, the underlying patterns of enforcement have remained more consistent over recent years.
The continued elevation in filings since 2022 suggests that demand for formal design protection has stabilised at a higher rate of growth than observed over recent decades. Unlike patents, which track technological invention, design filings are closely tied to product introduction, cycles of development in product style, and competitive differentiation by firms in consumer and industrial markets.1
Figure 4.1
Design applications, registrations and certifications in Australia, 2013 to 2025Endnotes
- TH Chan, J Mihm and ME Sosa, ‘On styles in product design: An analysis of U.S. design patents’, Management Science, 2017 64(3):1230-1249.