Industrial designs—Filing an assignment or licence

If you hold the rights to an industrial design, you can sell those rights or allow someone else to use them under certain conditions.

Here are a few definitions that will help you understand how you can let others use your industrial design.

Assignment

An assignment means selling all or part of your rights to a design permanently to another person or group (an assignee). The assignee takes over your ownership rights to make, use, import, rent or sell products that use the registered design and to authorize others to do the same.

You can file an assignment for any pending or registered design.

Licence

When you license your design, you allow someone else to use it according to specific terms and conditions that you and the other party set out in a licence agreement. You continue to own the design and can, in some cases, license to more than one party.

Filing

Assignments or licences that affect an industrial design can be recorded with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. To apply, you must pay a fee and submit one of these documents:

  • a copy of the document affecting the assignment or licence
  • an affidavit that provides evidence establishing the rightful assignee/licensee

Fees

You may pay the fees using a credit card, or by deposit account, postal money order or cheque.