Brazil formalize its adhesion to the Hague Agreement on Industrial Designs before WIPO

In one more step of BPTO’s alignment with international practices, in (Adesão ao Acordo de Haia é formalizada na OMPI — Português (Brasil) (www.gov.br)).www.gov.br)).

Having been created in 1925, with several updates in the following years, the Hague Agreement has more than 90 member countries, and the adhesion of Brazil is an old demand of Intellectual Property professionals, to be able to enjoy its benefits, which we enlist below:

– Possibility of extending the protection of national industrial designs in the signatory countries of the agreement (currently 95) through a single international application made before the International Bureau of WIPO;

– Agility and simplification of procedures and cost reduction for the registration of Industrial Designs abroad, thus benefiting Brazilians seeking protection claims in member countries and vice versa;

– Centralized management of Industrial Designs portfolio;

– Single language (option of French, Spanish or English);

– Costs in single currency (Swiss francs); and

– Instant and electronic communications

The Hague Agreement resulted from a need for simplicity and economy in an increasingly integrated world, thus making it possible to obtain protection for industrial designs with a minimum of formalities and costs, in particular the need to have a separate national application for each country of interest.

Furthermore, the agreement avoids the need for permanent control of different renewal deadlines for national registrations, which vary from one state to another and need to be paid in different rates and currencies.

In Brazil, the accession of the agreement (Project of Legislative Decree 274/22) was approved by the National Congress in 2022, and it will come into force after the enactment.