In general, in order to obtain protection in other countries, an application for the registration of an industrial design or for the grant of a patent for an industrial design must be filed in each country where protection is sought, in accordance with the law of that country. In other words, if protection is sought in countries A and B, an application should be filed with the intellectual property (IP) office of country A and another application with the IP office of country B.
To avoid having to submit applications in each and every country where protection is sought, WIPO’s Hague System provides a practical business solution for registering up to 100 designs in a large number of territories – all through one single international application. Find out more about the Hague System.
In certain regions, it is also possible to obtain protection for industrial designs in the region concerned by filing an application with a regional IP office. This is the case in the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), which registers industrial designs in states party to the Bangui Agreement; the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), which registers industrial designs in states party to the Lusaka Agreement; the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), which registers industrial designs in the three “Benelux” countries; and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (trademarks and designs) (OHIM), which registers industrial designs in the member states of the European Union.