Canadian Industrial Designs Database: Assistance

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Basic search option

The Basic Search page is the default search page.

Basic search

Enter the search criteria and select a search field from the drop-down menu. You can also choose to use bilingual search.

Status search option

Use this option to find the status of a specific industrial design National application/registration number.

Enter the National application/registration number in the box and click on "Search."

For definition of status terms, see Description of Searchable and Other Information Fields.

Advanced search

Additional search options (Boolean search)

You may use up to three search query boxes using Boolean operators (and, or, but not). These operators can be used to combine several search criteria in order to further refine a search and obtain more specific or relevant results.

  • The operator "and" ensures that both search criteria are present in the resulting documents.
  • The operator "or" ensures that at least one of the search criteria is present in the resulting documents.
  • The operator "but not" is used to exclude words or phrases from a query.

For example, you could look for "bottle" in the Description field or "bottle" in the Classification Text field. Another example would be to look for "Proctor & Gamble" in the Proprietor field but not "bottle" in the Description field.

Classification codes

Classification codes are assigned based on the particular type of article to which the design is applied. To search with classification, type the codes directly in the search boxes and select "Classification code" from the search field drop-down menu or type words from the classification text and select "Classification text."

Alternatively, click on the "Classification" button and select the type of article described in the Classification page. Classifications are grouped by class and sub-class.

Navigate through the classification list by clicking on the expand icon (+), and sub-classes will appear. Select the entire class or a specific sub-class by clicking the check box beside the title definition.

For a description of a class, click on the Description icon. The description appears in a new window (unless Javascript is disabled). The "Text version" link also displays the description.

Use the "Refine" button to search for classifications containing specific articles in the title definition or in the description. Note: This search function is accent sensitive.

You can select as many classes or sub-classes as needed. The search engine will attach the operator "or" between each selection.

The "Reset" button will reset the Classification page. Once classifications are selected, click "Search" to start the search engine. To add more search criteria, click "Back to search."

If you have difficulty navigating in the Classification page, choose the "Text version" view. The entire classification list is displayed but you will not be able to select any classifications. Terms or codes can be added to the search boxes on the Design search page.

Status

You can search the status of an Industrial Design by selecting it from the search field drop-down menu. Status information of application/registration includes the following fields:

  • All
  • Registered: The application has become a registered industrial design and is open for public inspection
  • Expired: The industrial design protection has expired
  • Expunged: The registration has been expunged by an order of the Federal Court
  • Pending: The application is awaiting registration

Registration date

This option restricts the search to a specific range of registration dates. By default, all dates are searched.

Made available on

This option restricts the search to a specific range of dates on which a registered design was made available. By default, all dates are searched.

Display options

  • Select the result display:
    • By default, the "Design" button is selected and the result list is composed of the design, the national application/registration number, international registration number when applicable, the title or finished article, the registration date, the date the design was made available, and the proprietor(s).
    • By selecting the "Proprietor(s)" button, the result list is composed of the national application/registration number, the registration date, the date the design was made available, the title or finished article, the proprietor, and other interested parties.
  • Sort documents: You can sort the result list by:
    • Proprietor, Ascending;
    • Proprietor, Descending;
    • Registration number, Ascending;
    • Registration number, Descending;
    • Registration date, Ascending;
    • Registration date, Descending;
    • Relevance;
    • Finished Article, Ascending; or
    • Finished Article, Descending.

Number of documents returned

You can modify the number of hits or results displayed on the result screen. The results are ranked based on the number of times individual query words appear in the selected field(s). A hit count equal to the maximum number selected means other relevant documents may not be displayed. To obtain all relevant documents, be more specific in your search criteria. By default, the maximum number of documents is selected.

Number of documents per page

This option lets you define the maximum number of documents displayed per page of the result list. The default number has been set to the maximum number of documents per page.

Upper/lower case letters, special characters, and accents

The search engine is case- and accent-insensitive. For example, a search for the word "ete" would find the words "Été," "été," or "ETE."

The search engine is programmed to ignore punctuation except for the following: &, @, $, %, ^, <, +, #, | and ~. Punctuation is replaced by a space. For example, a search for the word "on-line" would find the words "on line," "on-line," and "On Line." A search for " R.I.P." would find the words " R.I.P." "R I P " or "Q.R.I.P.L.E."

Truncation and wildcard characters

Truncation and wildcard characters add flexibility to your searches. The search engine is designed to recognize the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?) as wildcard indicators. You can use these special characters to broaden your searches using either the multiple or single character wildcard.

Wildcards are useful for searching truncation and word stems (e.g., pharm* to retrieve pharmacy, Pharmaceuticals, etc.) or variant spellings (e.g., organi?ation to retrieve organization or organisation).

  • Multiple character wildcard: Substitute (*) for a sequence of zero or more characters (e.g., to search for pharmacy and pharmaceutical, use "pharm*").
  • Single character wildcard: Substitute (?) for a single wildcard character (e.g., "organi?ation" will match different spellings, such as "organization" or "organisation").
  • Wildcards in multiple terms: Wildcards can be used in multiple search terms (e.g., Canad* Gov*).
  • Wildcards in front of characters string: Wildcards can also be used in front of a character string (e.g., *national will match different terms such as national, international, etc.). Note: This search method may not perform as well as searching with a character string followed by a wildcard character.

Execute search

Select the "Search" button to execute the search. Select the "Reset" button to return to the default settings and enter new search criteria.

Search results

Results are displayed in a new window and can be printed by selecting the "Print" button from the browser. Click on the image to view the detailed design images. Click on the link to view the detailed information of the design.

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