Design Law Treaty

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has recently announced plans to hold a diplomatic conference to negotiate a Design Law Treaty (DLT) with the aim of harmonising the global system for protecting industrial designs. WIPO claims the treaty will eliminate red tape, accelerate prosecution procedures, and improve access to overseas protection for SMEs in low and medium income countries ¹. The announcement has been broadly welcomed across the design community, with Dids Macdonald of UK pressure group Anti-Copying in Design (ACID) expressing her hopes that the treaty will "provide a level playing field globally so that trade agreements can reflect consistency in term and protection to enhance future trade agreements and to benefit individual designers".