100 Years of Design Protection

Sterne Kessler Director Tracy Durkin spoke on the panel “Where to Now? Ideas for the Development of the Hague System” at the 100 Years of Design Protection symposium hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Symposium Overview

On November 6, 1925, an international treaty was signed in The Hague, Netherlands, entitled “The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs”. This landmark treaty established the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs, which now comprises 82 members covering 99 countries. Over the past century, the Hague System has streamlined the international protection of industrial designs, enabling creators, innovators, and businesses to safeguard their work across borders. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Hague Agreement, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in cooperation with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, hosted a symposium at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Kingdom of the Netherlands, on November 6, 2025.