USPTO Proposes Rule Changes for International Design ApplicationsDecember 2, 2013

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is seeking comments on it proposed rules for implementing the provisions of Title I of the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012. The law is the implementing legislation for the 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (“the Hague Agreement”). The rules proposed rule changes under the law will allow applicants to file a single international design application; U.S. applicants will be able to file a single application, potentially seeking protection of an industrial design in more than 40 territories.

Under the proposed rules, international design applications could be filed by U.S. applicants in the USPTO as an office of indirect filing, meaning that the USPTO would transmit the international design application to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”). The International Bureau would review the application for compliance with the applicable formal requirements under the Hague Agreement. Where these requirements have been met, the International Bureau would register the industrial design in the International Register and, subsequently, publish the international registration and send a copy of the publication to each designated office. Since international registration would only occur after the International Bureau finds that the application conforms to the applicable formal requirements, examination before the Office would generally be limited to substantive matters.

According to the USPTO proposal, the “major changes to U.S. practice in title I of the PLTIA pertain to: (1) Standardizing formal requirements for international design applications; (2) establishing the USPTO as an office through which international design applications may be filed; (3) providing a right of priority with respect to international design applications; (4) treating an international design application that designates the United States as having the same effect from its filing date as that of a national design application; (5) providing provisional rights for published international design applications that designate the United States; (6) setting the patent term for design patents issuing from both national design applications under chapter 16 and international design applications designating the United States to 15 years from the date of patent grant; (7) providing for examination by the Office of international design applications that designate the United States; and (8) permitting an applicant's failure to act within prescribed time limits in an international design application to be excused as to the United States under certain conditions.”

Additional information, including the specific proposed rules and information on how to submit comments, is available here.