World IP Day - Designing the Future

This year's WIPO World IP Day, 26 April 2011, is design-themed. If you are aware of any tie-in events, please keep us posted. And, of course, WIPO too.

Here's the keynote message from WIPO Director General Francis Gurry:

Design touches every aspect of human creativity. It shapes the things we appreciate from traditional crafts to consumer electronics; from buildings and bicycles to fashion and furniture. Design has been called “intelligence made visible”.
Design is where form meets function. It determines the look and feel of the products we use each day – from everyday household items to the latest tablet computers. Design marries the practical with the pleasing. It brings style to innovation.
This year’s World Intellectual Property Day celebrates the role of design in the market-place, in society and in shaping the innovations of the future.
Originally referred to as “art in industry”, industrial design provides the means to differentiate between mass-produced objects, drawing us to one product rather than another, making one brand more successful than another. Behind every new design is a desire to break new ground, to improve and to enhance consumer experience. Good design makes products easier, more comfortable and safer to use.
With today’s increasing emphasis on ecologically sound living, “designing out waste” is now an aspiration shared by many creators. Sustainable design processes can help lower production costs and reduce environmental impact. The designs of the future will necessarily be green, and the intellectual property system will encourage designers to produce them, by helping to protect original designs against unauthorized copying and imitation.
In international markets, companies need to be able to protect their designs quickly and cost-effectively in several countries. WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs - which simplifies that process - saw a 30 percent increase in international applications last year.
On World Intellectual Property Day 2011 WIPO joins governments, organizations, schools and enterprises around the world in celebrating the designers today, who are designing the future.

Germany joins Geneva Act

Germany has signed up to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement, which will take effect on February 13th. It is hard to see what benefits this will bring German applicants, as Germany has since 1928 been a member of all previous versions of Hague, and has (via OHIM) been effectively a party to the Hague Act since January 1st 2008. However, for members of Geneva Act-only countries, it will open the "national route" to cover in Germany if that is preferred to going through the OHIM route. One reason for going the national route might be to get improved protection for spare parts since Germany has not adopted a "repair clause" under its national design law equivalent to the EU Community Design provisions of CDR Art 110.

"Design for the disabled"

"Design for the Disabled" is the title of a feature in the current issue of the attractive and informative WIPO Magazine. This upbeat article extols the virtues of safety products, therapeutic toys and other items and concludes:

"The good news is that considering the needs of the disabled will ultimately lead to designs that are safer, more flexible and more attractive for all consumers. We are hopefully working towards a world where design solutions are found for people of all degrees of ability".

Sadly, considering that this is a publication from the international agency charged with the protection of the rights of creators and with encouraging innovative activity, there is no glimmer of any "design solution" for those unfortunates who either cannot protect their designs or are unable to enforce the rights they do possess, on account of the expense and difficulty of litigating them.

No-one would seriously disagree with the need for the sort of products discussed in this article, but the market for goods designed for special needs -- particularly among the swelling ranks of the aged and the infirm -- grows increasingly valuable and the activities of manufacturers and distributors are not solely motivated by the promptings of their social consciences.