We are grateful to Sa'ar Alon of Reinhold Cohn & Partners for drawing our attention to the new Israeli design law, which has been approved by the Knesset (Parliament).  It is not yet enacted, and most of it will not be in force until a year thereafter.

For those of you who are familiar with the EU design system, I can save some time by merely saying that at top level, this looks very similar, right down to a grace period and a 3 year unregistered design right.  Sa'ar's article (with David Gilat)n summarising these changes is here - well worth a read.  

According to him, the new law enhances the lifetime (to 25 years) and remedies (statutory damages, as in the US and, many years ago, the UK), and on this basis will be welcome to design owners.  It also contains enabling provisions for allowing Israel to accede to the Hague Agreement.

Some additional detail is on Michael Factor's IP Factor blog posting here, including the extension of term of existing designs from 15 to 18 years.

We have not seen an English text of the new law, but as and when we do we will bring you more.