China Joins Two WIPO Treaties, the Hague System and the Marrakesh Treaty
It has been two challenging years, yet there are many reasons to still have hope. We wish you a blessed Lunar New Year as we welcome the year of the Tiger.
We wanted to highlight a few new developments in China.
China has joined the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs, submitting its instrument of accession to the 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement on February 5, 2022. The Act will go into effect in China on May 5, 2022.
The Hague System provides a way for designers to file a single international design application to register up to 100 designs in up to 94 countries. This helps applicants save time and money on filing separately applications in each jurisdiction. Applicants don’t need to file a national or regional design application first. They can just directly file an international application in the Hague System in one language with one set of fees.
China joining the Hague System gives international designers the option to obtain design patent rights in China through the streamlined Hague System. Chinese designers likewise will have access to the Hague System and access to streamlined design registration in 90+ countries.
As part of this process, China has been updating its design patent laws to comply with Hague System requirements, most notably increasing design patent protection life from 10 years to 15 years in the newest 4th Amendment of the Patent Law. Full details will be available in May. Please note that Hong Kong and Macau are not included.
On the same day, China also signed onto the Marrakesh Treaty, a humanitarian treaty aimed at removing copyright barriers to providing visual impaired people access to published works. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013 and is also administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It currently has 84 contracting parties, including China, the US, and the European Union.
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This article is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice or a legal opinion on a specific set of facts.
About the Authors
Jennifer Che, J.D. is Vice President and Principal at Eagle IP, a Boutique Patent Firm with offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macau.
This article is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice or a legal opinion on a specific set of facts.
