Yesterday the ILPTO announced, via its email distribution list and on its web site (the link to the actual announcement is this one), that a new database of registered designs had been put online at http://designsearch.justice.gov.il/. The database is bilingual, being searchable and providing results in both English and Hebrew. There's even an instructional video here (in Hebrew only). As shown in the screenshot below, several different criteria may be used as search parameters.
The launch of this database is a welcome development, and the database itself seems to be more user-friendly than the existing online patents database: in addition to the various search criteria, there are a number of options for sorting and displaying the results.
One caveat: unlike patents and patent applications, which are published 18 months after the earliest priority date or shortly thereafter, designs in Israel are only supposed to be opened to the public after the registration is complete, and not less than two years after the effective filing date. (The rationale behind that rule, to the extent it applies to designs that have been registered in under two years, is unclear, as it defeats the notice function of registering designs. The relevant ordinance is British and dates to the 1920's, and it's likely that if new design legislation is enacted, that particular provision will be sent packing.)
This means that for now at least, (a) this database won't enable people to find out if a particular design application has been submitted in Israel; and (b) the database won't show any registered designs having an effective filing date less than two years ago. And indeed, a query for designs filed between June 10, 2013 and June 10, 2015 (today) yields five hits, all of which were filed on June 10, 2013 (see screenshot below). The query yielded no hits for designs filed after June 10, 2013.
If the earlier date in the range is changed to June 11, 2013 (i.e. less than two years before today), the query yields no hits at all.
So apparently the database is showing what it's supposed to show and not showing what it's not supposed to show.
Nice work by the ILPTO.
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