Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs


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The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs', also known as the Hague system'' provides a mechanism for registering an industrial design in several countries by means of a single application, filed in one language, with one set of fees. The system is administered by WIPO.

Instruments

The Hague Agreement consists of several separate treaties, the most important of which are: the Hague Agreement of 1925, the London Act of 2 June 1934, the Hague Act of 28 November 1960, and the Geneva Act of 2 July 1999.
The original version of the Agreement is no longer applied, since all states parties signed up to subsequent instruments. The 1934 London Act formally applied between a London act state that did not sign up to the Hague and/or Geneva Act in relation with other London act states until October 2016. Since 1 January 2010, however, the application of this act had already been frozen.
Countries can become a party to the 1960 Act, the 1999 Act, or both. If a country signs up to only one Act, then applicants from that country can only use the Hague system to obtain protection for their designs in other countries which are signed up to the same Act. For instance, because the Japan has only signed up to the 1999 Act, applicants which qualify to use the Hague system because their domicile is in the European Union can only get protection in countries which have also signed up to the 1999 Act or to both the 1999 and 1960 Acts.

Contracting Parties (member countries)

All contracting parties to one or more of the instruments of the Hague Agreement are members of the Hague Union. A list is shown below:
CodeMemberThe Hague 1925London 1934The Hague 1960Stockholm 1967Geneva 1999territorial scope
OA OAPI
AL
AM
AZ
BX-
-
Territory also covered by EM
BZ
BJ-
Territory also covered by OA
BA
BW
BN
CA
KH
CI-
Territory also covered by OA
HRTerritory also covered by EM
DKTerritory also covered by EM
incl.
---
-
-
EG-
EETerritory also covered by EM
EM
FITerritory also covered by EM
FR-
Territory also covered by EM
Including all territories
GATerritory also covered by OA
DE-
Territory also covered by EM
Stockholm and Hague act: Including "Land Berlin
GE
GH
GRTerritory also covered by EM
HU-
Territory also covered by EM
IS
ID-
IL
ITTerritory also covered by EM
JP
KG
LVTerritory also covered by EM
LI-
LTTerritory also covered by EM
BXTerritory also covered by EM
MK
MLTerritory also covered by OA
MX'
MD
MC-
MN
MEsuccession from Serbia and Montenegro
MA-
NA
BX-
-
Territory also covered by EM
London Act incl Dutch East Indies, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Caribbean Netherlands
NETerritory also covered by OA
KP
NO
OM
PLTerritory also covered by EM
RU
ROTerritory also covered by EM
RW
WS
SM'
ST
SN-
Territory also covered by OA
RS
SG
SITerritory also covered by EM
KR
ES-
Territory also covered by EM
Hague agreement and London Act: Including Spanish Morocco and Colonies
SR-
CH-
SY
TJ
-- Tangier-
-
now part of Morocco
TN-
TR
TM
UA
UKTerritory also covered by EM. Incl. Isle of Man
US
VA-
VN

;Notes
A is maintained by WIPO.

Use of the system

Qualification to use the Hague system

Applicants can qualify to use the Hague system on the basis of any of the following criteria:
An applicant who does not qualify under one of these headings cannot use the Hague system. The Contracting Parties include not only individual countries, but also intergovernmental organisations such as the African Intellectual Property Organization and the European Union. This means an applicant domiciled in an EU member country that is not a Contracting Party, such as Austria or the United Kingdom, can nevertheless use the Hague system on the basis of his or her domicile in the European Union.

Application requirements

An application may be filed in English, French, or Spanish, at the choice of the applicant. The application must contain one or more views of the designs concerned and can include up to 100 different designs provided that the designs are all in the same class of the International Classification of Industrial Designs.
The application fee is composed of three types of fees: a basic fee, a publication fee, and a designation fee for each designated Contracting Party.

Examination and registration procedure

The application is examined for formal requirements by the International Bureau of WIPO, which provides the applicant with the opportunity to correct certain irregularities in the application. Once the formal requirements have been met, it is recorded in the International Register and details are published electronically in the International Designs Bulletin on the WIPO website.
If any designated Contracting Party considers that a design which has been registered for protection in that Contracting Party does not meet its domestic criteria for registrability, it must notify the International Bureau that it refuses the registration for that Contracting Party. In every Contracting Party that does not issue such a refusal, the international registration takes effect and provides the same protection as if the design had been registered under the domestic law of that Contracting Party.

Duration & renewal

The duration of an international registration is five years, extendable in further five-year periods up to the maximum duration permitted by each Contracting Party. For the 1934 London Act the maximum term was 15 years.
Renewals are handled centrally by the International Bureau. The applicant pays a renewal fee and notifies the International Bureau of the countries for which the registration is to be renewed.

Naming

The agreement was concluded at the Dutch city The Hague.