Last night, after the final stage of negotiations in Riyadh, WIPO member states approved the Design Law Treaty (DLT), marking a significant advancement in global design protection. The Treaty is designed to simplify, expedite, and reduce the cost of the process for designers to protect their designs both at home and abroad.

What the Treaty will do:

• set a maximum list of indications or elements that designers must submit when applying for protection. This closed list helps create a predictable framework, ensuring designers know exactly what information is required to file an application.
• applicants can choose how to represent their designs - whether through drawings, photographs, or, if accepted by the relevant IP office, video.
• designers may include several designs in a single application, provided certain conditions are met.
• set out requirements for the granting of a filing date. Keeping the list of filing-date requirements for applications to a minimum is crucial because, in the field of design, postponing the filing date can lead to the loss of rights.
• provide for a grace period of 12 months following a first disclosure of the design, during which such self-disclosure will not affect its validity for registration.
• allow applicants to keep their designs unpublished for at least six months after having secured a filing date.
• introduce relief measures and offer some flexibility to applicants in cases where deadlines are missed. Without such measures, in the case of designs, missing a time limit usually results in the permanent loss of rights.
• the procedure for renewing design registrations has been simplified.
• furthers the introduction of e-filing systems for designs and the electronic exchange of priority documents.

The Treaty also expressly interfaces design protection with the protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions: contracting parties may require applicants to file information on traditional cultural expressions and traditional knowledge relevant to the eligibility for registration of the design.

Prior to the final stage of negotiations, ECTA submitted its comments on the DLT proposal to the WIPO Diplomatic Conference, which can be accessed here.

Katri Kiviniemi, ECTA Design Committee Chair, commented as follows: “I have been following the Diplomatic Conference in Riyadh on behalf of ECTA Design Committee and have to say that I am impressed by this outcome, considering also the difficult times in world economies and in international politics in general. The aim of this Treaty is to unify the requirements for design application procedures and it was, at least for the most part, reached. Especially important for the designers is the 12 months grace period as a remedy if the design has been published prior to filing”.

The Treaty will come into force once it is signed by 15 contracting parties.

To find out more, please ready the official press release here.