China joins treaty on intellectual property of industrial designs

GENEVA-Agence France-Presse

China has joined the World Intellectual Property Organization’s industrial design protection treaty, which should help Chinese designers protect their work internationally, the UN agency said on May 5. February.

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Beijing has entered WIPO’s Hague system for the international registration of industrial designs, as well as the Marrakesh Treaty, making books for the visually impaired more accessible.

PMOI Director General Daren Tang received China’s membership documents while in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the agency said. in Geneva in a press release.

WIPO said Chinese residents filed 795,504 designs in 2020, accounting for 55% of the global total.

“The design community in China will have an easier time protecting and getting their designs out of China, and foreign designers will have an easier time moving their designs to one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world,” Tang said.

The Hague System eliminates the need to file and pay for separate design protection applications in each member country. It will apply to China when its membership enters into force on May 5.

Some major Chinese companies with factories in countries that are already members, such as electronics firm Xiaomi and IT giant Lenovo, have already joined the system, the PMOI said.

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The agency said industrial designs make up the “ornamental aspect” of an item.

These can be three-dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or colors, he said.

“More recently, graphical user interfaces or objects for the virtual world have become popular forms of design,” WIPO said.

“Personal health and safety item design registrations have also increased in recent times, showing the relevance of design innovation to global efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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