The Russian Federation Contributed to the Preparation for the 2024 Diplomatic Conference to Conclude Design Law Treaty

The delegation led by the Deputy Head of Rospatent Ms. Victoria Galkovskaya actively participated in the Third Special Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) and the Preparatory Committee of Diplomatic Conference to Conclude and Adopt a Design Law Treaty (DLT), held on October 2-11, 2023, in Geneva (Switzerland).

The SCT Special Session aimed to close any existing gaps in the text of the DLT draft articles and its draft Regulations for the further transmission to the Preparatory Committee as the substantive basic proposal for the Diplomatic Conference planned for 2024. The delegation of Rospatent actively participated in the article-by-article discussion of these documents. The SCT approved several textual proposals made by the Russian delegation and included them in the draft DLT.

During the Preparatory Committee the Member States finalized the administrative and final provisions of the DLT and addressed organizational matters related to the convocation of the Diplomatic Conference.

The WIPO Member States unanimously approved Riyadh, capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the host of a November 11-22, 2024, diplomatic conference to finalize negotiations of a proposed DLT.

Earlier in September 2023 the delegation of Rospatent also participated in the Special Session of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), as well as the Preparatory Committee of the Diplomatic Conference to Conclude an International Legal Instrument Relating to Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge Associated with Genetic Resources. Member States finalized the draft Instrument and decided on most organizational matters. At the same time the agenda item on dates and venue of the Diplomatic Conference remained open and the meeting of the Preparatory Committee was adjourned to be reconvened at a future date before the end of 2023 to consider this matter.

Background information:
The delegation of the Russian Federation comprised representatives of Rospatent, Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) and the Legal Section of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.

Following years of negotiations, the 55^th (30^th extraordinary) session of the WIPO General Assembly, held in July 2022, took a historic decision – the Member States approved the convening of diplomatic conferences in 2024 to conclude two proposed international agreements:

• one document pertaining to the protection of designs to ease cross-border trade (DLT) and

• an international legal instrument relating to intellectual property, genetic resources (GRs) and associated traditional knowledge (TK).

The proposed DLT aims at streamlining the global system for protecting industrial designs and making it significantly easier for legal and natural persons countries to obtain design protection overseas.

Similar treaties already exist with regard to patents (Patent Law Treaty or PLT) and trademarks (Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks). Therefore, the DLT is intended to close the gap related to the protection of industrial designs.

In its turn, the second draft instrument being developed within WIPO addresses certain intellectual property questions related to access to, use of and benefit-sharing in GRs, such as plants, animals and microorganisms that are valuable inputs in the life sciences, and the TK associated with GRs that is scientifically valuable and integral to the economic and cultural well-being of indigenous and local communities the world over. One of the main ideas of the draft Instrument is that applicants for patents whose inventions use GKs and associated TK should disclose that fact in their patent applications.