Commentary Part 1: DESIGNS Section 8: UK registered designs – Accession to the Hague Agreement
29.The Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement provides for and regulates an international system for the registration of industrial designs. Businesses in the UK have access to the Hague system through the EU having joined, but this limits the protection available to the EU as a whole. This makes using the system more costly and less advantageous for UK designers, specifically small and medium enterprises, who are not able to use the Hague system to gain protection specifically covering relevant territories rather than the entire EU.
30.Subsection (1) of section 8 inserts a new section 15ZA into the RDA which puts in place provisions to allow UK implementation of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement. Section 15ZA permits the Hague Agreement to be brought into effect in the UK by order of the Secretary of State, and lists the main areas which may be included in such an order, including for example the procedures that have to be followed when an international application requires protection in the UK.
31.Subsection (2) of section 8 (which amends section 37 of the RDA) provides that an order made under new section 15ZA must be laid in draft before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.