Hague in Force in China: Tips for Choosing the Hague Agreement or Paris Convention to File Design Patents in China

“Based on our experience and analysis of the relevant regulations, here are some tips for foreign applicants on choosing between the Hague Agreement and Paris Convention to enter China with their design patent applications.”

Hague Agreement- https://depositphotos.com/70235131/stock-photo-businesswoman-in-front-of-a.htmlThe Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (the “Hague Agreement”) will enter into force in China next week, on May 5. Together with the original Paris Convention approach, there will now be two different options for filing design patents in China: the Hague system (designated extension) and the Paris Convention (direct entry).

Requirements

Countries’ requirements for filing design application documents vary:

A. Drawing requirements: Both China’s and the United States’ drawing requirements are quite unique; it is essentially impossible for the drawings of a single application to meet the requirements of China and the United States at the same time.

The drawing requirements for Japan and South Korea are also unique and should be exactly the same as the drawings of the priority application (omitted views without design points can be added).

B. Requirements for instructions: China has special requirements for product names and product uses.

How to Choose

Based on our experience and analysis of the relevant regulations, we have the following preliminary suggestions on how foreign applicants should choose to enter China:

1) If there are fewer than three countries, regardless of whether the United States and China are included, it is recommended to apply separately through the Paris Convention.

2) If fewer than five countries and more than three, including the United States and China at the same time, it is recommended to apply for other countries and the United States/China through the Hague Agreement, and separately apply for China/United States through the Paris Convention; (through the Hague Agreement/Paris Convention, when applying, prepare application documents according to the requirements of both countries).

3) Fewer than five countries and more than three countries, including only the United States or China, but not both, it is recommended to apply through the Hague Agreement.

4) For more than five countries, regardless of whether the United States and China are included, it is recommended to apply through the Hague Agreement.

Special Note

For new applications entering China through the Hague system, it is uncertain whether the “designation fee at the international application stage” in the official fee will be incurred. Likely, it will be higher than the official fee for directly entering a Chinese design through the Paris Convention. This specific fee will be announced soon.

Lastly, for new applications entering China through the Hague system, whether the “delayed publication time” is up to 30 months is uncertain for the time being (because the regulations of each country are different), but we infer that it is likely to be delayed up to 30 months. The specific regulations will be announced soon.

Editors note: this article was originally attributed to Peter H. Li at Jiaquan in error.

Image Source: Deposit Photos
Author: ra2studio
Image ID: 70235131 

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