Watermark

1. Nationals or residents of a Hague Agreement member state will be able to file an international application designating the EU as a whole as a community design. Official designation fees are expected to be reasonably low.

2. Reciprocally, EU nationals or residents will be able to file international design applications designating other Hague Agreement members.

Presently there are 47 Hague Agreement members, though these do not include major design filing originating countries such as USA, China, Japan, Canada or Australia.

Through the Geneva Act, the Hague Agreement System for International Registration of Industrial Designs will work similar to the Madrid Protocol system for International Registration of Trade Marks, and each member state will be able to perform some national examination.

It is important to note that the Hague Agreement provides an administrative process for application and registration designs. It does not commonise design law across member states. Consequently, a design registration found valid in one member state may not necessarily be valid in another. Watermark strongly recommends that applicants seek professional advice if they are unsure of how the International Registration system for Industrial Designs operates and relates to their design, or if they have concerns regarding registration across multiple jurisdictions.
Mark Pullen