The Parliament voted in support of Commission proposals to link
the 'Community Design' system, which protects designs ranging from
jewellery to mobile phones within the EU, with the international
design registration system of the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO).
In addition to the 25 Member States of the EU, a design will be
protected in the countries which are members of the Geneva Act of
the Hague Agreement concerning the international registration of
industrial designs. These include Singapore, Korea, Turkey and
Switzerland. Unfortunately they do not include major markets such
as the US, China, Japan, Australia.
Welcoming Parliament's decision, Internal Market and Services
Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said today: "This vote is an
important step towards our aims of enabling EU businesses to
safeguard valuable design rights with less bureaucracy, while
encouraging them to trade with third countries in the knowledge
that their design rights are protected."
The Community Design system, which became fully operational on
1st April 2003, provides for the acquisition of protection for
designs with unitary effect for the whole territory of the EU. The
Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks
and Designs), which is located in Alicante (Spain), is in charge of
handling the administration of the registered Community
designs.
This simplified procedure should bring cost savings: there would
no longer be a need to provide translations of the documents, to
keep watch on the different deadlines for renewal of a great number
of national registrations and to pay a series of national fees and
fees to agents in different countries.
