The European Community Joins the Hague System
| Author | Gregoire Bisson |
| Position | WIPO Sector of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications |
On New Year's Day this year, the long anticipated accession of the European Community (EC) to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs came into effect. The accession creates an interface between WIPO's international industrial design operations and those of the EC's industrial design system, allowing users - individuals and businesses in all participating countries - to obtain protection in the whole of the EC as well as in the other member countries of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement by filing one single application for the registration of their industrial designs.
Such an international registration will have effect in as many members of the Geneva Act as identified in the application for registration, except any that refuse protection within the required time-limit. If protection is not refused by the EC's industrial design office, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) (OHIM), protection of the industrial designs in question will be effective in all 27 EC member states just as if the applicant had applied or registered directly with OHIM.
Under the Geneva Act, an intergovernmental organization can join the Hague System if it has an office through which industrial design protection can be obtained in all the territories covered by the organization. This is the second time that the EC has signed up to a WIPO-administered treaty, having already acceded to the Madrid Protocol for the international registration of trademarks in 2004. So far, the EC is the only intergovernmental organization to have acceded, as a bloc, to a WIPO treaty. The EC becomes the 47th member of the Hague System.
Operational since 2004, the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement enhancesthe Hague System by making it more compatible with the procedures for the registration of industrial designs in countries such as the United States and Japan where protection of industrial designs is contingent on examination to determine the acceptability of an application. The Geneva Act offers flexibilities such as:
* Giving design owners the option to defer publication of their new design for a grace period of up to 30 months - time for market research and the option of withdrawing a...
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