Saudi Arabia to host Design Law Treaty Diplomatic Conference

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Jane Lambert

A diplomatic conference will take place in Riyadh between 11 and 22 Nov 2024 to conclude and adopt a design law treaty.   Although art 5quinquies of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property requires industrial designs to be protected by all countries of the Paris Union how they are protected varies greatly from country to country.  Countries like the UK and EU member states provide a system of design registration.  Other countries like the USA grant design patents.  The purpose of the proposed treaty is to harmonize and facilitate the registration procedure.

A draft treaty and implementing regulations have already been proposed.  The proposed treaty consists of 32 articles covering abbreviations, general principles, filing, grace periods, publication, terms of protection, renewal, regulations and governance.  An agenda, timetable and social programme have also been published.  The proposed treaty will not affect contracting parties' obligations under the Hague Agreement or Section 4  of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPs").

Further information on the conference can be contained from the World Intellectual Property Office and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property websites.  Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during UK office hours or send me a message through my contact page,

WIPO Design Law Treaty Diplomatic Conference to Take Place in Saudi Arabia

 

Author Emmanuel Berrod Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed Source Wikimedia Commons

Jane Lambert

A diplomatic conference is a meeting of representatives of governments that are negotiating the terms of an international agreement. On 21 July 2022, the WIPO General Assembly voted to convene a diplomatic conference to conclude and adopt a Design Law Treaty before the end of 2024.  On 9 Oct 2023, the Preparatory Committee of the Diplomatic Conference to Conclude and Adopt a Design Law Treaty agreed to hold the conference in Riyadh between 11 and 22 Nov 2023 (see Saudi Arabia Set to Host 2024 Diplomatic Conference to Conclude Design Law Treaty PR/2023/909 9 Oct 2023).

Although countries that belong to the World Trade Organization are bound by arts 25 and 26 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") to protect new or original industrial designs for at least 10 years and the Hague Agreement facilitates international design registration, the requirements for registration vary considerably from country to country.   The Design Law Treaty is intended to iron out those differences.   A draft of the proposed Treaty and its Regulations have been circulating for some time.  According to the WIPO press release,, the Treaty should make it significantly easier for designers and small and medium-sized enterprises to register their designs.

The new Treaty coincides with the Commission's proposals for a new Designs Directive to replace Directive 98/71/EC and amendments to the Community Design Regulation which I shall discuss in detail in NIPC News and IP after Brexit.,

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during UK office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

UK's New Intellectual Property Attache to the GCC

Author Furfur Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Jane Lambert

The British government has signalled the importance of the Gulf Cooperation Council ("GCC") as a trading and investment partner by appointing Yamish Yakoob as its first Intellectual Property Attaché to the bloc (see the IPO's Case Study IP Attaché: Yamish Yakoob, Gulf Cooperation Council 7 Oct 2021 IPO website). Yakoob's appointment increases the number of IP attachés to 7.  The others are in North America, South-East Asia, China, Brazil, India and Geneva (see Guidance Attaché contact details 7 Oct 2021 IPO website).

I first learnt about the work of our attachés when I chaired meetings for Tom Duke and Monica Su at the studios of Northern Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds and the Business Village in Barnsley on 19 Sept 2018 (see Meet our IP Attaché to China 21 July 2017 IP Yorkshire). At those meetings, our representatives met business leaders and IP practitioners from the Leeds and Sheffield city regions.  

Yakoob was educated at the International Indian School and Asan Memorial College from where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics.  He has spent the greater part of his career in the consular service as a trade and investment advisor between 2004 and 2018 at the British Consulate-General. Since 2018 he has served in the diplomatic service as Senior Trade Advisor - Creative (Culture, Sport and Tourism) at our embassy in Riyadh. He speaks Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam. Tamil and Urdu as well as English.

He can be contacted at the British embassy in Riyadh at 

Abdullah Alsahmi Street,
Near Circle 10,
As Safarat
Al Safarat,
Riyadh
12513,
Saudi Arabia.
Tel: +966 (0)11 481 9100 and
Email Yamish.Yakoob@fcdo.gov.uk

I congratulate Yamish Yakoob on his appointment and wish him every success.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article can call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during normal business hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Postscript

In view of the worldwide interest in this post, I have added a short postscript on the work of the UK's Science & Innovation Network in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states with some useful links. Mr Yakoob is likely to be closely involved in the Network's activities.

Saudi Arabia - Riyadh Workshop to train Advisers to Saudi SME on Effective Intellectual Asset Management

Between the 16 and 18 Sept 2014 a training workshop will take place in Riyadh on effective intellectual asset management for small and medium enterprises ("SME"). It will be organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (the UN specialist agency for intellectual property ("IP")) in conjunction with the Standing Committee on Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Saudi Arabia,

The importance of IP to SME is explained on the front page of the WIPO portal on SME:

"Regardless of what product your enterprise makes or what service it provides, it is likely that it is regularly using and creating a great deal of intellectual property. This being the case, you should systematically consider the steps required for protecting, managing and enforcing it, so as to get the best possible commercial results from its ownership. If you are using intellectual property that belongs to others, then you should consider buying it or acquiring the rights to use it by taking a license in order to avoid a dispute and consequent expensive litigation.

Almost every SME has a trade name or one or more trademarks and should consider protecting them. Most SMEs will have valuable confidential business information, from customers' lists to sales tactics that they may wish to protect. A large number would have developed creative original designs. Many would have produced, or assisted in the publication, dissemination or retailing of a copyrighted work. Some may have invented or improved a product or service.
In all such cases, your SME should consider how best to use the IP system to its own benefit. Remember that IP may assist your SME in almost every aspect of your business development and competitive strategy: from product development to product design, from service delivery to marketing, and from raising financial resources to exporting or expanding your business abroad through licensing or franchising."

The development of an understanding of IP by Saudi SME will be vital for the growth and diversification of the economy of that country. The object of the workshop is to train those who will train Saudi businesses in effective intellectual asset management.

The course will be delivered in English and a provisional programme has already been published which may be downloaded from the WIPO website.  After an introduction to WIPO by Siyoung Park of WIPO's SME section and an overview of IP and the role of effective intellectual asset management in enhancing SME competitiveness there will be talks on trade marks, designs, patents and utility models, copyright and confidentiality by Prof. Al-Khoury of La Sagesse University in Lebanon, Prof Damodaran of the Indian Institute of Management and Mr Park on the 16 Sept.  The next day there will be discussions and exercises on shaping IP strategy, IP in the digital economy and in international business, licensing and other matters. The speakers will be joined by the chair of the Standing Committee on IP who will outline IP Law and administration and IP support services for SMEs in Saudi Arabia.  On the last day there will be talks on accounting and valuation of intellectual assets, IP audits and due diligence and an overview of the role of SME in the Saudi economy by a speaker to be arranged.  After round table discussions which will include a view of IP support in Brunei there will be a short open book written test for the participants.

This seems a useful introduction to IP which could well be emulated even in advanced countries such as the UK where the difficulties of SME in obtaining relevant and comprehensive advice on IP were highlighted by Prof Hargreaves in his report in May 2011.