The ID5 Partners met in Brussels in late October for the 2022 ID5 Annual Meeting, with some joining the discussions online.
The ID5 is an industrial design framework established in 2015 comprised of the IP offices leading in the number of applications filed to protect industrial designs, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The ID5 strives at improving protection for industrial designs through greater awareness, improved work efficiency, and increased quality and user-friendliness. The ID5 is a catalyst for modern industrial design protection and its initiatives include:
- Sharing information on office practices and statistics;
- The Hague Agreement on Industrial Designs;
- Promoting procedural frameworks aimed at protecting industrial designs;
- Studies of the registration and examination practices of the Partner offices; and
- Protecting Emerging Designs.
On the occasional of the annual meeting, ID5 has compiled a Booklet to present an overall look at its work.
The Booklet summarizes concluded and ongoing projects, such as a study on the admissibility of internet information as legitimate disclosure in novelty examinations; a study of design classification conventions and practices; a catalogue of the view and drawing requirements for designs; a study of practices of priority right for industrial designs by ID5 offices; a study of the application of a grace period for industrial design application; a study of partial designs as an effective means of protection for industrial design innovation; a study of term of protection and the manner and framework for obtaining that term of protection for industrial design rights; a study on remedies and relief for industrial design infringement; and a study of practices on protection of new technological designs, among others.
The ID5 partners also announced four new projects:
- Graphical E-learning Platform aimed at educating small and medium-sized enterprises;
- Handbook explaining how and when the examiners of the five Partner Offices assess designs;
- Understanding each country and region’s system for identifying/indicating protected designs beyond the official design register or gazette; and
- Comparing the current level of protection provided to digital designs.
Described more fully, the latter project compares the current level of protection provided to digital designs, and the protection level which the users in the relevant industries require so that ID5 Offices can identify a direction and make a recommended practice in the long run and will proceed that the midterm 2023 meeting.
Major questions for GUI designs include whether they are protected in contexts other than traditional computer, smartphone and smartwatch display screens, particularly as display and wearable technologies and products are advancing, and whether design rights cover both physical products and virtual representations thereof, as users are evermore digital and online fluent and immersing, and the ID5 is commended to continue advancing GUI protection.
The ID5 website, pictured and linked right, provides additional information about its work and related international news and developments relating to IP protection for industrial designs.
For more information about international industrial design IP and policy, contact the author below:
George Raynal, Principal
george.raynal@designlawgroup.com
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