Source: Japan Patent Office (Treaty Summary Table)
https://www.jpo.go.jp/news/kokusai/wipo/riyadh-design-law-treaty.html
A diplomatic conference to finalize and adopt the Design Law Treaty was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from November 11 to 22, 2024, and the new treaty, known as the Riyadh Design Law Treaty, was adopted on the 22nd of the same month.
The Riyadh Design Law Treaty has been under discussion since 2005 at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Trademarks, Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) with the aim of reducing the burden on applicants by harmonizing and simplifying domestic procedures that differ from country to country. It includes grace periods (exceptions to loss of novelty, etc.), the maintenance of non-publication of applied and registered designs (secret design system), and relief measures provided under certain conditions in cases such as when procedural periods have expired or rights have been lost.
The Convention will enter into force three months after fifteen States or intergovernmental organizations have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession (Article 30(2)).
Main points of the adopted Riyadh Design Law Convention
The main points of the adopted treaty are as follows:
① Requirements that the Office may impose at the time of filing an application or request
The Treaty lists and specifies the requirements and indications that a Contracting Party may require in an application for an industrial design, renewal, change of ownership or recording of a license, and prohibits a Contracting Party from imposing further requirements.
② Grace period (exceptions to loss of novelty, etc.)
In principle, a design that is published prior to filing an application is deemed to have lost its novelty and is not protected. However, the Convention provides that even if a design is published during the grace period (12 months prior to the priority date), the design will not lose its novelty, etc. (However, Contracting Parties may declare that they reserve the application of this provision when acceding to the Convention).
3) Maintaining confidentiality of applied and registered designs (secret design system)
The Treaty establishes the obligations of Contracting Parties to allow design applications and registered designs to remain unpublished for at least six months from the filing date (although Contracting Parties may declare reservations to this provision when acceding to the Treaty).
④ Procedural remedies
(a) Extensions of Processing Time Limits Specified by an Office
The Treaty provides that contracting parties are obliged to introduce relief measures to extend time limits specified by the Office by at least one month, provided that the requirements of the Treaty and the Regulations are met. Contracting parties may choose whether to submit a request for extension to the Office before or after the expiration of the time limit.
(b) Restoration of rights in a design application or registration
Where a Contracting Party does not provide for post-period relief (see (a) above), and has caused a loss of rights as a direct result of a failure to meet a time limit, it is obliged to reinstate the rights of an applicant or holder in a design application or registration, provided that certain criteria (such as the due care or non-intentional criteria) and requirements prescribed in the Treaty and Regulations are met.
(c) Correction or addition of priority claim
Contracting Parties are obliged to allow the correction or addition of a priority claim, provided that the requirements set out in the Treaty and Regulations are met.
(d) Restoration of the right of priority
Contracting Parties are obligated to restore the right of priority even after the priority period has expired, provided that certain criteria (such as the due care criterion or the non-intentional criterion) and requirements set out in the Treaty and Regulations are met (however, Contracting Parties may declare reservations to the application of these provisions when acceding to the Treaty).
For more information about the Riyadh Designs Law Convention, please see the following pages:
Japan Patent Office (Summary of Treaties)
https://www.jpo.go.jp/news/kokusai/wipo/riyadh-design-law-treaty.html
WIPO (Details of Treaties, Regulations and Bylaws)
https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=639157