The UK government has announced that, as of 13 June 2018, the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs will enter into force in the UK.
The Hague Agreement provides a registration mechanism (managed by WIPO) that can be used for easy and cost-effective registration of a design for a number of states by a single application. The UK’s accession to the Hague Agreement follows recent accessions by the Russian Federation, the US, Japan and South Korea.
The EU is also a party to the Hague Agreement. However, the UK’s independent accession will be welcomed by applicants since it will ensure that, regardless of changes that may be made to design law in the UK in connection with Brexit, applicants will continue to be able to obtain design protection in the UK via the Hague Agreement, and UK applicants will continue to be entitled to take advantage of the Hague system.
If you have any questions about obtaining design protection, and in particular about the Hague system, please contact Daniel Jarrett, Nick Noble, or a member of our Designs team.