USPTO to Host Forum to Discuss Proposed Changes to Implement Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 – Title I The Hague Agreement

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) recently announced that it will hold a public forum to discuss implementation of Title I of the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 (“PLTIA”). The law, which serves as the implementing legislation for the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (“the Hague Agreement”), allows applicants to file a single international design application to acquire global protection. The forum will be held on Tuesday, January 14, 2014, at the USPTO campus in Alexandria, Virginia.

On November 29, 2013, the USPTO published a notice in the Federal Register seeking written comments on proposed changes to the rules of practice to implement Title I of the PLTIA.

The PLTIA and the proposed rules call for the following: standardizing formal requirements for international design applications; establishing the USPTO as an office through which international design applications may be filed; providing for substantive examination by the Office of international design applications that designate the United States; providing provisional rights for published international design applications that designate the United States; and setting the patent term for design patents at 15 years from the date of patent grant.

Further information about the proposed rules and upcoming forum may be found in the Federal Register Notice.

Practice Tip: This new law allows applicants to file a single international design application to pursue global protection.