Author: Joe Conneely, Conneely PC
A Canadian industrial design application may now include computer-generated animated designs (e.g., icons, images, etc.) as registerable subject matter. The Canadian Industrial Design Office has taken the position that applications for computer-generated animated designs are to be examined as a single design applied to a finished article (e.g., a computer monitor). The drawings included in such an application for an animated design will be viewed as a sequence of frames. Unanimated computer-generated designs will continue to be examined as a static design applied to a finished article. This practice replaces the Industrial Design Office’s previous practice under which the different states of computer-generated animated designs were examined as either distinct designs or variants.
In an application for registration of a computer-generated animated design, if the description portion of the application does not specify the sequence of drawings or frames, then the order in which the frames are presented in the application will define the claimed sequence. Note that as the sequence of frames in an animated design application are examined as one design and not independently of their sequential arrangement, the individual frames in the sequence need not include substantially similar content to one another.
For example, in an application for registration of an animated icon design, the icon design must be shown as applied to a finished article such as a computer monitor. The title of the design must identify the finished article to which the icon is applied (e.g., a computer monitor) rather than a portion thereof (i.e., the icon design ornamenting the computer monitor). The drawings or frames included in the application must show the article (e.g., the computer monitor) upon which the icon is presented. The icon in such drawings would be shown in solid lines indicating that it is the portion of the article for which design protection is sought while the surrounding computer monitor representation would typically be shown in stippled (or broken lines) indicating that it does not form part of the claimed design. The description portion of the application would typically indicate that the design consists of the “ornamentation” of the computer monitor as shown in solid lines in the drawings while the stippled (or broken) line portions do not form part of the design. In addition, the description portion of the application may include a description of the sequence of drawings or frames comprising the design. For example, the figure references included in the description portion of an application for a two frame design sequence for a computer-generated animated icon design may recite the following: “FIG. 1 is a first frame of a sequence of frames illustrating a computer monitor according to the design; and, FIG. 2 is a second frame thereof.”
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