The Hague Agreement: update of the Common Regulations and accession of Belize

The Assembly of the Hague Union has recently approved the amendments to Rule 3 of the Common Regulations Under the 1999 and 1960 Acts of the Hague Agreement (Common Regulations), which took effect on January 1, 2019.

The amendments concern representation of the applicant before the International Bureau. Previously, it was necessary to provide a Power of Attorney, authorising the agent to deal on behalf of the applicant, if the international application was signed and filed by the agent. To reduce the burden, it was decided to modify this requirement. Therefore, it is currently enough to indicate the agent’s name and address in the international application signed by the applicant. If not indicated in the international application at the time of filing, it still will be necessary to submit the Power of Attorney.

Besides, at the beginning of November 2018, Belize deposited its instrument of accession to the Geneva (1999) Act with the WIPO, thus, joining the Hague system for the international registration of industrial designs. The country will become the 60th contracting party to the Geneva Act as of February 9, 2019.

The Hague system is an attractive route for the applicants if they want to have their industrial designs smoothly registered in the multiple territories with minimum burdens. Currently, the international applications may be filed in English, French or Spanish. Meantime, at the 38th Session of the Working Group on the Legal Development of the Hague System, held in autumn 2018 in Geneva, it was offered to include the Russian language in the list of the official languages, which is believed to be of use for further promotion of the Hague system. Our team will monitor the issue and keep you accordingly informed.