WIPO Trademark Committee Opens With Firm Positions On Design Treaty

At the outset of this week’s World Intellectual Property Organization trademark committee meeting, several member states cited a pressing need to move forward in preparing recommendations for a treaty on industrial designs. Others maintained firm positions on the unresolved issue of keeping a provision on technical assistance to developing countries as part of the treaty text.

A key focus of the 31^st session of the Standing Committee on Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT), taking place from 17-21 March, is on industrial designs.

[Update:] The second day of the meeting was dedicated to negotiating provisions of a draft Article 22 on technical assistance in the design law treaty, mostly in informal meetings. Members came back to plenary for a short time in the afternoon to consider some proposed edits as captured in a non-paper [pdf] issued by the chair. Members were unable to reach agreement on the non-paper and returned again to informal meetings, according to sources.

In his opening remarks to the meeting, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry highlighted the “extraordinary growth” in the past year in the number of demands for design protection worldwide. Concerning the proposed treaty on industrial designs, Gurry urged countries to “exercise maximum flexibility” on the most-debated issue of technical assistance. He emphasised that the opportunity to achieve a treaty multilaterally “only comes once,” a sentiment repeated by member states throughout the day, and so “this will be your only occasion to get that right.”

The delegate of Kenya on behalf of the African Group strongly requested that an article on technical assistance be part of the substantive provisions of the design law treaty. Implementation of the treaty will inflict a “significant” financial burden on developing countries, the delegate said.

“To ensure uniform application of formalities, they have to upgrade their systems and capacities to more or less the same levels of other parties,” said the African Group. “It is important for developing countries, particularly those in Africa, to be assured of adequate and appropriate technical assistance to implement the treaties.”

Brazil also called for the technical assistance provision to form part of the treaty text, being “the best way to confer the legal certainty that [developing countries] need to participate in the design system.”

The Group B developed countries said that they “attached importance technical assistance and building capacities” but hoped that this issue would not delay the convening of a diplomatic conference on the design treaty as this would “delay benefits for users of the IP system.”

The European Union and Central European and Baltic States (CEBS) group both separately expressed the view that the draft articles and regulations of the draft treaty are “mature” and the hope to reach agreement on this issue this week.  China called for more “flexible expression and approaches” on issues relating to the design treaty in order to further its progress.

Uruguay on behalf of Latin America and Caribbean group said that “the text must contain provision that ensures technical assistance.” The delegate also said the group looks forward to further discussion on the issue of protection of country names.

Adil El Maliki, director general of the Moroccan Industrial and Commercial Property Office (OMPIC), was re-elected to be chair, proposed by the African Group with support from Group B and the CEBS group.

The chair proposed that the committee address the Industrial Design Law Treaty on Monday and Tuesday (going into informal meetings on Tuesday morning), leaving Wednesday for item 6 on the agenda on trademarks, and Thursday to discuss geographical indications. This afternoon, members returned to informal session for more discussion.

More on the agenda can be found here (IPW, WIPO, 12 March 2014).

A new agenda item on “the contribution of the SCT to the [WIPO] Development Agenda recommendations” was proposed by the Development Agenda Group represented by Brazil, and accepted by member states.

Maëli Astruc contributed to this story.

Julia Fraser is an intern at Intellectual Property Watch. She is currently training to be a solicitor and will start work at an international law firm in London in 2015. She has a BSc Honours in Biology from Edinburgh University where she developed an interest in public health related intellectual property issues.