The ID5 Partners achieved significant results at the 2024 ID5 Annual Meeting in Hakone, Japan, hosted by the JPO. The CNIPA and EUIPO published a user guide on viewing and drawing requirements and will continue working together to develop another user guide on digital designs. A new project led by JPO was adopted to discuss challenges for the design system posed by new technologies. The KIPO’s report summarised the current state of protection of digital designs in the metaverse, including a recap of exchanges of the 2023 User session in Incheon. The USPTO led the revision of five ID5 studies to reflect recent legislative and practice changes. The E-learning platform will soon receive new content on how to present online information in invalidity procedures. The ID5 Partners welcomed the adoption of the Design Law Treaty and will further compare and discuss their examination practices of designs submitted through the Hague system. Over 120 representatives of the five jurisdictions joined the ID5 user sessions to share and discuss insights and case studies from the private sector regarding the impact of AI on design creation and protection.

Since 2020 all ID5 offices have been securely exchanging priority documents via the electronic system called WIPO Digital Access Service (DAS) operated by the World Intellectual Property Organization. In 2023, nearly 150.000 priority documents were exchanged among the ID5 partners. The partners have now published a User Guide to clarify questions on the application format, the documents deposited by the partner offices, limitations on file size and colour or other limitation preventing an application, as well as common causes of failed transmissions. Interested applicants seeking help with their priority claims are invited to view the User Guide and the Summary Document on the ID5 website.

The ID5 partners are pleased to invite user representatives from the five jurisdictions to exchange on the latest developments of the partner offices, the ID5 collaboration and projects and any current issues relating to design protection. The ID5 User Session will take place in the Prince Hakone Ashinoko on 13 December 2024.

The 2023 ID5 statistics have just been published to exchange information between the ID5 offices. The report contains statistics from the five partner offices on overall filing numbers, the number of registrations and performance indicators, such as the average time for a grant, registration or issuance. International design application data is also included for the five ID5 partners, together with volumes of priority certificates exchanged through the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Digital Access Service. The virtual tables of the 2023 statistics are also available to view information on volumes, shares of filings from other ID5 offices and beyond, top Locarno classes and average office response times. For more information, please visit the ID5 website.

You can opt to file your design with deferment. This means your design would remain a secret for a designated period. But do all ID5 offices grant this possibility? For how long? What are the risks and benefits of such a system? We invite you to look at your options in the five ID5 jurisdictions. You can read the extended study and view the comparative charts to decide if deferment is right for your design application.

The Japan Patent Office hosted the ID5 Midterm meeting and the ID5 Ad-Hoc Hague Workshop on 24 - 26 April at the headquarters of the JPO in Tokyo. The ID5 Partners welcomed the re-vamped ID5 website and the launch of the e-learning platform for SMEs on graphical representation. They also discussed many new and ongoing initiatives in the realm of digital designs, such as digital design protection in the metaverse, developments in laws and IT tools and the possibility of an ID5-wide registered design indication “(D)”. The partners will update some existing ID5 studies and soon share their overall statistics for 2023. They also held a two-day workshop discussing examination practices of international applications filed with WIPO via the Hague route, a timely and particularly useful dialogue following China’s accession in 2022. The event proved to be a valuable exchange clarifying practices, identifying areas for additional focus for the Partners and WIPO, and resulting in a greater understanding among the five largest design offices.

The ID5 partners are pleased to announce the launch of their e-learning platform. The published infographics give suggestions for creating representations of designs when registering with the five partner offices. The platform targets individuals and small- and medium-sized enterprises with little experience in design registration. The platform introduces the options for graphical representation when filing a design application and provides examples of the various options as infographics. These examples are in line with the requirements outlined in the catalogue of the view and drawing requirements for designs, without being too technical. Some links to the guidelines of the ID5 offices are also available. For further reading, the user can refer to the catalogue or the upcoming user guide planned for publication at the end of 2024.