STATUS REPORT - GENEVA ACT DESIGN TREATY OF THE HAGUE AGREEMENT

March 6, 2005

Prepared by William T. Fryer, III
 

NEW BOOK ON THE GENEVA ACT (1999)
 

A book was published in early 2005 by William T. Fryer, III, on the drafting history and with analysis of the Geneva Act (1999), of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (Hague Agreement). This book should help countries and intergovernmental organizations review the Geneva Act for accession and prepared the necessary declarations. It should help attorneys work with the Geneva Act, and researchers evaluate the economic aspects of the treaty. The Notice of Publication details can be found from this link.
 

STATUS OF ACCESSIONS TO THE GENEVA ACT

For earlier information on the Geneva Act development, reference is made to prior newsletters posted on this web site. Specifically, each newsletter except No. 4 has background information on the Geneva Act..

The Geneva Act became operational on April 1, 2004, and reports on recent accessions to the Geneva Act are available on the WIPO Industrial Designs Hague System web site (http://www.wipo.int/hague). [add link to this URL]. Since February 17, 2003, the last report on this web site, nine countries have acceded to the Geneva Act. The 17 members as of March 6, 2005, are: Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Namibia, Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
 

POSSIBLE NEW ACCESSIONS TO THE GENEVA ACT

There are indications that other countries and regional organizations are in the process of preparing for accession to the Geneva Act. The WIPO Venice Conference, held May 13-14, 2004, stimulated interest in the Geneva Act.  Speakers from the European Union and the U. S. Administrations stated that their governments would likely accede. . Other speakers who represented companies and IP attorney organizations made the same report. More details on these statements can be found on this web site Venice Conference page using this link.  FICPI, an international organization of IP attorneys responded to an EU survey on interest in EU accession to the Geneva Act, and indicated it favored EU accession (See FICPI document 9/13/2004, EXCO/IT04/CET/1202, on FICPI web site at URL: http://www.ficpi.org. Informal indications are that the EU survey responses were generally favorable to EU accession to the Geneva Act.

The U.S. administration has not taken any public steps to survey interest in Geneva Act, or submitted ratification documents to Congress. The next step in the U.S. is to have U. S. industries and professional organizations interested in using the Geneva Act contact the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office Director, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office of Legislative and International Affairs, the U. S. Department of State and U.S. Congress, to move the accession process forward. The concern for prevention of IP piracy around the world should put the Geneva Act accession at the top of the action list, for all countries and regional organizations.
 


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