Norway to join Hague?

We hear that Norway may soon join the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement. Norway's accession means that all the EEA countries (the EU, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein) are members of Hague - if and when it happens, it starts to add up to a sensible reason for using the Hague route to cover "greater Europe" and the European borders.

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.