The USPTO welcomed the Partner offices for the 2025 Midterm Meeting in La Jolla, California, on 14-15 and 17 May 2025. In addition to taking stock of the progress of joint projects, the Partners had extensive discussions on two new project proposals related to the Hague system. WIPO presented on the latest evolution of the Hague system and the Global ID project. WIPO also gave an overview of the working group discussions to be sent to plenary in 2026, including reflections on multiple class applications and new image formats. In addition to discussing ID5 projects, the Partners held their annual New Technologies Exchange and discussed the latest developments in IT tools used for design examination and recent legislative changes. Most offices reported on their efforts to perfect the accuracy of prior art search capabilities with the use of AI (CNIPA, JPO, KIPO), provide more user-friendly application interfaces (USPTO) and, develop automatization and search tools (EUIPO). Legislative changes were highlighted by EUIPO with the entry into force of Phase 1 of the EU design reform, which updated definitions, terminology, and fees. KIPO informed the Partners of planned revisions to the partial examination system. Representatives of the five jurisdictions gathered at the ID5 User Session, where Users debated new types of designs. Chinese users brought interesting examples of designs from the gaming industry. EU users reported on the EU design reform, which now explicitly protects virtual designs without the need to show physical form. Japanese users stressed the benefits of having a system not limiting the number of views. Korean users warned of the dangers of losing novelty by filing for trademark protection prior to design protection, and the complexities of a recent filing of a human face for avatars. US users voiced concerns over filing requirements of designs being fixed on a physical form.

Following the great interest for the ID5 collaboration at last year’s ID5 Annual Meeting, the 2025 host USPTO is organising a User Session at the 2025 Midterm meeting. The event will be opened by USPTO’s Acting Director Coke Stewart. This platform will provide excellent opportunity for users of the five jurisdictions to share their experiences in filing digital design in offices around the world and discuss how technical advances affect the relationship between product and the design in general. Users are welcome to join the ID5 offices at the Sheraton La Jolla, in La Jolla, California on 17 May 2025 at 9:00.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of the ID5 Offices, an informative User Guide for View and Drawing Requirements of Designs has been officially published. This User Guide is a simplified version of the Catalogue of the view and drawing requirements for designs. It compiles the requirements for views in the ID5 Offices, using a structured combination of textual explanations and images to outline each Office's requirements for design representations. Key elements include general requirements such as forms, titles and background of views, as well as specific requirements for designs of product in sets, graphical user interface (GUI) and products with movement. This resource aims to provide a clear overview of the different requirements and guidance to users on preparing and submitting views when seeking design protection within the jurisdictions of ID5 Offices.

This project aims to share information on challenges facing design protection system in dealing with expanding use of new technologies such as AIs and Metaverse in each country or region under the ID5 office jurisdiction and to provide beneficial supporting materials to help each ID5 office plan their design system.

To collect the general or/and the special regulations (if applicable) of Partner Offices in the ID5 regarding digital design protection subject, application requirements, application amendment, etc. This exercise will build on and complement the above-mentioned studies already carried out by ID5 on the subject. / To show users how to seek design protection for different types of digital designs concisely and understandably, so as to provide effective guidance to users while enhancing information sharing among Partner Offices in this area.

The ID5 e-learning platform has been up and running since 2024 and continues to provide quick visual information for first time filers on how to prepare their design applications. This year, the ID5 partners are happy to present another iteration of the project: providing detailed recommendations on how to present evidence in an invalidity procedure that a prior design was publicly available on the internet. This infographic summarizes the list of recommendations, prepared by the ID5 offices, for using information available on the internet as a source of prior art. The recommendations will identify different types of internet sources and advise on how to verify the publication date of prior designs using, for example, timestamping, web archives, multiple sources, and metadata. The visual aids and recommendations will help parties in invalidity proceedings prove that a prior design was publicly available on the internet.

Thanks to the limitless human imagination, digital items traded within the Metaverse are being created in a way never seen before. The ID5 project led by KIPO took on the complex task of comparing the current level of protection provided to digital designs in the metaverse and compiling a report, with the private sector’s contribution, that discusses the characteristics of avatars in design protection, complexities of infringement between real and virtual worlds, and how this protection is distinguished from copyright protection. KIPO’s report summarizes the findings while inviting further research due to the continuous