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14 March 2018

UK ratifies Hague Agreement

The UK completed the final step in ratifying the Hague Agreement for industrial designs yesterday, after depositing the instrument of ratification in Geneva.

Administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the system allows applicants to register an industrial design in any of the currently 67 contracting parties through a single application.

The agreement will come into effect in three months.

The UK’s decision to join the Hague system is about flexibility, according to a statement released by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which added that the ratification was part of a wider modernisation programme for designs.

Tim Moss, CEO of the IPO, said: “The UK’s decision to join the Hague system in our national capacity will give businesses a greater choice in how to protect, manage and register their designs internationally, and save them money.”

He noted that design-intensive UK businesses generate more than 11% of the country’s gross domestic product. It’s also estimated that the total investment in intangible assets protected by design rights is more than £14 billion ($15.8 billion).

“Our membership of this international system may also encourage non-UK owners of designs to register their rights in the UK for basing manufacturing, distribution or licensing of their IP,” said Moss.

UK businesses have had access to the Hague system since 2008 through the EU’s membership of it. But up until now, the UK was not a contracting party in its own right.

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