Hague Agreement on the International Deposit of Industrial Designs

The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs

The Convention of 6 November 1925 is an international treaty concluded in the Dutch city of The Hague in the Netherlands. Its purpose is to make it easier to obtain protection for the appearance of industrial products in a number of signatory countries. The Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, who also maintains a register of all industrial designs deposited under the Convention.

The Convention is open to any contracting national, depositary countries and other countries that may be designated as such. The Convention makes it possible to obtain protection for an industrial design in a number of countries without the need to file separate applications in each country. Under the Convention, the applicant deposits the industrial design with his national office, which forwards it to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The design is then published in the international industrial designs register.

The design may be protected in any of the countries with which the Convention is in force, provided that the corresponding national laws allow for the protection of industrial designs under the Hague Agreement. Design protection acquired under the Convention is valid for a period of five years, which may be renewed up to an additional five times.

The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs has had a great impact on industrial design protection. As of 2018, it had 81 contracting parties, consisting of 80 countries and one intergovernmental organization. The most recent contracting party to accede to the Hague Agreement was Bahrain in 2017.

The Convention has been successful in reducing the cost and inconvenience of obtaining international protection for industrial designs. By submitting a single application for registration, applicants can protect their designs in multiple countries, without the need for multiple applications and multiple translations. The Convention also ensures that a record of the deposit is available in all of the countries in which the design is protected.

The Convention also provides legal certainty to companies and individuals who wish to protect their industrial designs. The Convention guarantees that, upon registration, the design is protected in all of the countries that are parties to the Convention, thus allowing products to be marketed in those countries with a higher degree of security and confidence.

The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs is an important tool for the international protection of industrial designs. Its success lies in its ability to provide a unified registration system, ensuring a greater level of protection for industrial designs across multiple countries.

The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (also known as the Hague Agreement or the International Design Registration) was concluded in The Hague, at a Diplomatic Conference convened by the Netherlands government on November 6, 1925. It entered into force on May 2, 1928 and has since been regularly revised to keep up with international developments.

The Hague Agreement is administered by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It provides a streamlined procedure for registering an industrial design internationally, as an alternative to filing separate national applications. Under the agreement, it is possible to obtain protection for a design in all countries that are party to the Agreement with just one application, a single language, and a single fee. This streamlined process makes design registration faster, more cost-effective and easier to maintain than national registrations.

The Hague Agreement is open to any country that is a member of WIPO. Currently, there are more than sixty (60) countries that are members of the Hague Agreement. Members may notify their acceptance of the agreement at any time and then proceed to ratify it when the internal legal requirements for ratification have been met.

All participants in the agreement are required to protect all design registrations made in accordance with the agreement, regardless of whether they belong to a citizen of a member country, or not. This international protection is extended to novel industrial design that has the features of originality, novelty and distinctiveness.

The Agreement also provides for the registration of distinct unconventional industrial designs. This provision offers extra protection for designs Outside the scope of protection under ordinary copyright laws.

Member countries also benefit from common rules for design registration and standard representation requirements for International applications. All applications must meet the minimum formal requirements of the Agreement and legal disputes resulting from the registration of a design can be resolved by common legal rules.

Overall, the Hague Agreement offers a range of member benefits and simplifies the procedures for international registration of industrial design. It offers an effective way of protecting and enforcing designs on a global basis, while providing applicants with an easier, cost-effective way of safeguarding their intellectual property.