It took twenty years of work and complex multilateral confrontation, but in the end, the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the UN agency serving innovators and creators, adopted the Design Law Treaty. The agreement represents a significant step forward in international collaboration in the field of design.
The aim of the new treaty is to simplify and harmonise procedures for registering industrial designs, providing greater legal certainty and facilitating access to protection for the work of designers, especially smaller designers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To put it simply, it will be easier, faster and cheaper for designers worldwide to protect their designs both at home and abroad.
Italy was in fourth place globally in 2023 for the number of design applications filed internationally at WIPO, as indicated in the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024, published on 7 November in Geneva. According to the document, there was also an overall annual growth of 2.8 per cent in industrial design applications worldwide, underlining the growing importance of this industrial property title for companies of all sizes.
Participating on behalf of Italy was the Ministry of Enterprise. The new treaty, once ratified, will come into force in at least 15 countries.