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The Hague Agreement on the International Registration of Industrial Designs entered force last Thursday (3/8). It is a system that allows the possibility of protection in up to 96 signatory countries with an initial request made in a single language.

The agreement simplifies and reduces bureaucracy in the international protection of industrial designs. The Brazilian furniture, footwear, and clothing industries, among others, will have more legal security to export their products to member countries without being unduly copied.

The registration of industrial design protects the ornamental aspects of industrial products, both in form and in prints and applied patterns. The agreement allows reducing costs and simplifying the procedures necessary for registering products with our own design abroad. The system also encourages the attraction of foreign investment by protecting works by non-residents in the country, a rule that favors registrations made by Brazilians abroad.

Before the agreement’s entry into force, in the case of exports, users had to file the request directly with the Intellectual Property offices of each country where they intended to sell the products, pay fees and present the documents in the respective languages.

With the agreement, when requesting the BPTO, the interested party informs that the registration must be made according to the terms of the Hague Agreement without the need for immediate translation into all the languages of the other countries. Then, it must notify the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in which countries it wants to protect industrial design. In the next step, WIPO will be responsible for sending the documentation to the countries listed by the applicant.

The change in procedures makes starting and administering the registration process more accessible. However, each country must examine the application and charge fees for this service. The standardization of procedures makes the steps more agile and simplified.

“The agreement will provide a ‘single window’ for protecting industrial designs,” says Andrea Macera, secretary of Competitiveness and Regulatory Policies at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services.

Concluded in 1999 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Hague Agreement had Brazil’s accession approved by Congress in October 2022.

Source: MDCI