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1. As you are aware, the workplan for 2019 of The Hague Registry envisages the holding of an eighth session of the Working Group on the Legal Development of the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs. Circular C.N 3865 foresaw that this session would take place from October 30 to November 1, 2019.
2. At its seventh session, following a proposal by the Delegation of the Russian Federation and a similar request received from China, the Working Group discussed a possible expansion of the language regime of the Hague System. The Working Group requested the Secretariat to prepare a detailed analysis describing models and their implications for a possible expansion of the language regime, to be submitted to the eighth session. The document will be prepared in line with Messrs. Muls and Bisson’s memorandum of February 21, 2019, approved by you.
3. As you know, a performance audit was conducted by external auditors in December 2016, and their report contained recommendations in the context of the recurrent deficit of the Hague Union, and particularly that “the Management may consider placing in the Hague Union Assembly proposal for revisiting the existing fee structure periodically, with incremental changes for making the Hague Union self-sustaining”. In October 2017, during the process of approving the Proposed Program and Budget for the 2018/19 Biennium, the WIPO Assemblies:
“…. (ii) Recalled that, in accordance with the treaties of the fee-financed unions, each union should have revenue sufficient to cover its own expenses;
(iii) Noted that fee-financed unions with a projected biennial deficit in the 2018/19 biennium should examine measures in accordance with its own treaty to address that deficit…”
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4. At the seventh session of the Working Group, the Delegation of the United States of America submitted a document entitled “Contributing to the Financial Well-being of the Organization”. The document refers to the a |