Filing design convention documents - guidelines superseded 8 February 2012

The Design Regulations 34(2) and 34(3) require an applicant to lodge certified convention documents and verified translations of the foreign language parts of convention documents at IPONZ at the time an application is made or within three months of the application date. IPONZ is not in a position to view or download these documents from overseas offices and the onus is on the applicant to lodge the documents.

Online convention applications

A convention application can be filed online and an electronic copy of the convention document, as a single electronic file in the pdf format, may be attached to and uploaded with the online filing form to satisfy the requirement under regulation 34(2). One document for each convention priority requested may be uploaded. This being the case, any required translation document should be uploaded using the online correspondence facility once the application has been filed.

Filing of convention documents at a later time

The documents (certified convention document and verified translation) which support the claim to convention priority may be filed within three months after an application has been made, preferably as electronic documents via the online correspondence facility. Since the drop-down “Nature of Correspondence” list does not specifically include a “Convention Document” type, the document should be labelled as “Correspondence to Examiner”.

Certification and verification

The electronic copy of the convention document may be a document digitally signed by the issuing authority or may be a facsimile copy of a document including a verification certificate provided by the issuing authority. The facsimile copy might be an electronic file or derived from a paper document, in either case originating from the issuing authority. If the uploaded convention document is not digitally signed by the issuing authority or does not include a (facsimile) verification certificate, then the Commissioner may request that the applicant lodge a suitably verified document.

Original verification certificates of English translations do not need to be supplied to IPONZ; a scanned electronic copy of the verification certificate uploaded with the translated document will satisfy regulation 34(3). 

Confirmation of Filing (General)

If a document has been uploaded against a Patent, Design or Trade Mark in either an online correspondence or online filing page, then the onscreen confirmation of the submission of the page verifies that the document has been filed with IPONZ. Once applications and documents have been filed, applicants (the registered user) can view, using the View IP History option, the application and/or documentation that has been received by IPONZ and recorded in the IPONZ database. A confirmation email will also be transmitted to the registered user for each inward communication received.

Last updated 8 February 2012