Growth, Harmonization in Focus as Hague System Turns 100

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s international design protection regime — known as the Hague System — turns 100 this year.

To celebrate, WIPO is holding a symposium at the Peace Palace in the Hague on Nov. 6, 100 years to the day of its founding, and in the same location as the original diplomatic conference that created the Hague System.

In view of the anniversary and the symposium, this article gives a brief overview of the Hague System and the developments over the past few years that have transformed it into a truly global filing option that design applicants shouldn’t overlook.

Unlike utility patents — which can provide protection based on how something works — design patents, sometimes called design registrations, protect how something looks. They can cover designs for everything from smartphones, cars and furniture to buildings, medical devices and graphical user interfaces.

Without the Hague System, an applicant wishing to protect a design in multiple jurisdictions would need to file a separate application with each local office through local counsel. The Hague System simplifies the process by providing for one consolidated application to WIPO that can protect a design in multiple jurisdictions.

And unlike the Patent Cooperation Treaty system for utility patents, the Hague System does not require an applicant to engage local counsel to enter the national phase. Rather, after a Hague application is filed, the Hague application itself is automatically forwarded to the designated jurisdictions for examination according to each jurisdiction’s own laws.

But despite offering this advantage, for much of its existence the Hague System struggled to catch on outside of Europe. In 2004, less than 1% of filers using the Hague System came from outside Europe.

That started to change in 2014, when South Korea joined the Hague System, followed by Japan and the U.S. in 2015, and China in 2022.

The effects of this rapid expansion were twofold. The geographic reach of protection obtainable through the Hague System expanded to include some of the most popular jurisdictions for design protection, and applicants based in these new jurisdictions, who were often ineligible to file applications through the Hague System previously, were now able to take advantage of the Hague System for the first time.

Now, at 100 years old, the Hague System has become one of the most important pillars of an international design protection strategy. Today, the Hague System includes 82 members, encompassing 99 countries.

Filers from China, the U.S. and South Korea are the heaviest users, with China accounting for 24% of all Hague applications filed in 2024, the U.S. accounting for 10% and South Korea accounting for 9%. Though Europe is still the most common jurisdiction filers designate for protection, it is closely followed by the U.S., China and Japan.

The Hague System’s growth over the past decade is in part attributable to the network effects of its newest members. The more jurisdictions that join, the greater the Hague System’s reach, and the greater the value of joining is to other jurisdictions. And with the extended reach achieved over the past decade, the Hague System has grown into a truly global option for securing design protection.

Whether an applicant is looking to protect a single design or dozens, a Hague application provides a streamlined, efficient process to so. Without the Hague System, an applicant looking to protect five designs in five countries could be looking at engaging five different local firms to each file five separate applications in their local offices. That same applicant using the Hague System sidesteps that complexity and cost.

The cost and convenience benefits alone make filing through the Hague System a valuable option for many applicants. But it’s important for applicants to be aware of potential complications. For example:

• Each local office examines a Hague application according to its own laws, and may refuse the application based on substantive local rules. Due to different patentability standards across the globe, some designs may be patentable in some jurisdictions but not others. If applicants are not aware of local rules and practice prior to filing, they may be surprised by a refusal that is difficult or impossible to overcome.
• Procedural hurdles, such as post-filing translation or local representation requirements, can complicate the process and catch applicants who are unaware of the country-specific requirements off-guard.
• Hague applications automatically publish after registration unless deferred publication is requested. This has the potential to expose sensitive designs earlier than intended if applicants are not aware of the Hague System’s quick publication.
• Not all countries are part of the Hague System, so some applicants will still need to file separate national or regional applications to protect designs in important jurisdictions.

Understanding these challenges can help applicants make more informed decisions about when and how to use the Hague System as part of their broader design protection strategy.

Looking forward, the Hague System is expected to continue to expand its geographic reach, with jurisdictions such as Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Thailand, Peru and the Eurasian Patent Office expected to join in the coming years. Notably absent from this list are India and Australia, two significant markets for design protection that for now remain outliers and require individual local applications to protect designs.

As the Hague System sets out on its next hundred years, it offers a promising path toward even greater harmonization in design law. For example, the requirements for protecting graphical user interfaces designs still vary across jurisdictions.

The Hague System is uniquely positioned to help guide the convergence of these requirements over the coming years by suggesting standard formats or descriptions through its electronic filing system — standards that individual offices may be inclined to accept or adopt as their own.