From September 30 to October 2, 2024, the Cross Regional Technical Meeting on the Design Law Treaty (DLT) was held under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO ) in Paracas (Republic of Peru).

Ukrainian IP Office representatives participated in the technical meeting:

• First Deputy Director Bogdan Paduchak;
• Deputy Director Vladyslav Bilotskyi.

This technical meeting was held to discuss national practices and problematic issues of international harmonisation of approaches to the protection of industrial design. It is worth noting that the Diplomatic Conference on the Design Law Treaty is scheduled to be held in November this year.

The purpose of the event is to discuss a number of challenging issues related to the protection of IP rights, the development of legislation on the legal protection of industrial designs and, in particular, the exchange of information on IP, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions in the context of industrial designs.

Other topics of discussion included the harmonisation of the provision on grace period for filing in case of disclosure, relief in respect of time limits for certain actions before the Office, reinstatement of rights after a finding by the Office of due care of unintentionality, as well as the issue of electronic industrial design system.

‘The Technical Meeting on the Design Law Treaty allows us to consolidate the efforts of the international community and lay the foundation for the successful holding of the Diplomatic Conference scheduled for November this year,’ said Bogdan Paduchak.

Vladyslav Bilotskyi noted that the work on the DLT started back in 2011:

‘This Treaty provides for the improvement of administrative procedures relating to industrial designs and is an important step towards strengthening the international protection of industrial design rights.’

Bogdan Paduchak highlighted that all initiatives aimed at simplifying registration procedures and harmonising approaches to industrial design protection should be welcomed:

‘This will allow designers and other creators to protect their work more easily, quickly and accessibly both in the domestic and international markets’.

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