IPA design convention-countries — IP Australia Designs Examiners' Manual – 20.2. Convention priority: Convention countries

‘Convention countries’ means: countries that have signed the Paris Convention – except Australia all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), whether or not they have signed the Paris Convention countries Australia has a bilateral agreement with to treat design applications there the same way as convention applications. More details are in reg 3.06 (1). A list of convention countries is at www.wipo.int . A list of full members of the WTO is at www.wto.org . Basic applications covering multiple countries It is possible to file a single design application that provides protection in multiple countries under: the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, (see www.wipo.int for a list of members) the Benelux Designs Convention (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) the Treaty Establishing the European Community (see https://europa.eu for a list of members). An application filed under any of these treaties can be a basic application provided that the country it is filed in is a convention country or a WTO member. Nearly all applications filed under these 3 agreements meet this condition. Consequently, we assume that they are basic applications unless there is clear reason to believe otherwise in a particular case. New convention countries For convention priority to apply, the country must be a member on the filing date of the Australian application. This means that the applicant can claim convention priority if the relevant country: joins the convention before the Australian filing date leaves the convention after the Australian filing date. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The applicant cannot claim convention priority if the relevant country:​​​​​​​ joins the convention after the Australian filing date ​​​​​​​leaves the convention before the Australian filing date.