Claiming Priority For EU IPO Registered Community Designs (RCDs) Simplified

From 12 September 2020 the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EU IPO) will participate in the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Digital Access Service (DAS) as an office of second filing. This enables users to supply the EU IPO with a DAS code on filing a priority-claiming registered design application, and thereby automate the transmission of the priority document(s) to the EU IPO.

Earlier this year the EU IPO announced that the RCD system was to participate in DAS, which is a service that allows participating IP Offices to exchange Paris convention priority documents electronically, and thereby avoid the need for applicants to file documentation (in practice, often certified copies of the first filing) in order to support a claim to priority under the Paris convention.