November 2025 marks the centenary of the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs. Over the past 100 years, this structure for registering industrial designs has evolved to meet the changing needs of designers – and its growth is still ongoing.
“I’m not sure the architects of the Hague Agreement would recognize it today,” says Grégoire Bisson, Director of International Designs Registry at WIPO. What started with just 11 signatories (plus the Free City of Danzig) now counts among its advocates 82 member states and intergovernmental organizations spanning 99 countries.
The Hague System enables designers to secure design protection internationally with a single application. It also provides for central management and renewal of design registrations.
It is not just the geographical coverage, however, that has changed over the past 100 years. As the Hague System has grown, significant legal changes have led to increased flexibility and more opportunities for designers. In 2024, a record 27,161 designs were filed under the Hague System – an increase of 6.8 percent on 2023.
The evolution of the Hague System also reflects the changing role of design. “A Century of Design Registration 1925-2025”, a new book published by WIPO, curates 100 designs that have benefited from the system over the past century, from 1920s fabrics for ladies’ millinery to 2020s graphical user interfaces (GUIs), robots and electric aircraft. The examples demonstrate the flexibility of the Hague System in protecting a wide range of designs, while illustrating changes in commerce and technology since the Roaring Twenties.
The history of the Hague System
The Hague Agreement entered into force in four countries in June 1928. Back then, Bisson says, it was “a very simple system”. Applicants filed their design applications with BIRPI – WIPO’s predecessor, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property, founded in 1893. Once registered, their applications would have automatic effect in all Hague Agreement member countries unless expressly renounced. The language used was French.
Applicants could deposit a reproduction of the design or a sample, but designs were not published. “If you wanted to enforce the design right, BIRPI would send a sample to the national court,” Bisson says.
The 1925 Act was replaced by the 1934 London Act, which entered into force in June 1939, shortly before the start of the Second World War. However, there were no significant changes to the system until the adoption of the second Hague Act in 1960. This entered into force fully for 11 member states in 1984.
The 1960 Act (and the Geneva Protocol, which entered into force in 1979) introduced a number of reforms, including the right of IP offices to refuse applications based on substantive examination, i.e., to examine whether the design meets the substantive requirements.
Doing so required reproductions of design applications to be published and led to the launch of the International Designs Bulletin, which was mailed to all participating national offices each month. In 1999, the Bulletin was replaced by a CD-ROM.
Despite these changes, the Hague System did not flourish during this period. The number of annual applications hovered between 3,000 and 4,000, before falling below 2,000 following the launch of the registered community design (RCD, now called the registered European Union design) in 2003. The RCD enabled applicants to protect their designs across the 15 EU Member States – a number that increased to 27 in 2007 and 28 in 2013.
The new Hague System
Everything changed with the adoption of the Geneva Act in 1999, which entered into effect in December 2003. Bisson describes it as “a much-needed upgrade”. Crucially, the Geneva Act enabled the supranational organizations such as the EU and OAPI to join, and offered more flexibility to offices, particularly those required to examine novelty. It also introduced the possibility of deferment for up to 30 months, simplified the renewal process, extended the minimum duration of protection from 10 to 15 years and used the term “designation” rather than “deposit”.
“The Geneva Act diluted the one-size-fits-all system,” Bisson says, “but it was a necessary reform for the system to survive.” Digital photography and computer-aided design (CAD) also took off around this time, with applicants using them to reproduce designs.
A number of other important changes followed in the late 2000s, including the launch of electronic filing in 2008, e-renewal in 2010 and, the same year, the introduction of Spanish as a third working language, in addition to French and English.
Global reach of the international design system
Over the following years, the accessions of several large countries led to further transformation of the Hague System, this time from European to truly international. The Republic of Korea joined in 2014; Japan and the US in 2015; Canada, the Russian Federation and the UK (joining independently of the EU following the Brexit vote) in 2018; and Israel and Mexico in 2020. China, the number-one nation for design filings in the world, followed in 2022.
Today, the Hague System reaches six continents and accounts for about 40 percent of non-resident filings worldwide. The most recent countries to join are Brazil (2023); Saint Kitts and Nevis (2024); and Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan (2025).
Having more members, with different cultures on the scope of the protection and disclosure of designs, has of course made the system more complicated. But Bisson says the eHague platform makes managing international designs clear and efficient.
“The Hague System is popular with designers and small businesses who need the ability to immediately secure design rights for distribution and licensing, or to reassure financial partners,” Bisson says. “You can secure the market fast while the design is still novel from a legal and commercial perspective.”
According to the latest data, the average number of designated members is 3.4, meaning lots of applications have only one or two designations. The EU is the most popular Hague member (designated in about 70 percent of applications), followed by the UK, the US, Switzerland and China.
A century of design protection: from stationery to scooters
The evolution of the Hague System reflects economic change, driven by technology and the emergence of new markets. As “A Century of Design Registration 1925-2025” illustrates, in the early years, the biggest industry sectors included stationery and office equipment, clocks and watches, clothing, and textile piece goods. Today those sectors have diminished and the biggest include recording and communication equipment, machines, means of transport or hoisting, and travel goods.
Bisson has seen many interesting and unexpected shifts first-hand: significant growth in designs for consumer electronics, a boom in scooter designs and a spike in designs for facemasks and gel dispensers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many well-known designs are profiled in “A Century of Design Registration 1925-2025”, including that of the Sony PlayStation (1994), the Victorinox Spartan Swiss Army Knife (1999), the KitKat (2008) and the Birkenstock Arizona Big Buckle slider (2017), as well as two scooters: the Ninebot Balance from 2015 and Xiaomi Electric from 2019.
The book also includes two examples of GUI designs, from Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold4 (2022) and Huawei’s HarmonyOS (2024). GUI designs have become increasingly popular among applicants, leading to calls for design protection to be extended to animated interfaces too.
The recent EU design reform broadened the definition of “design” to encompass animation (both movement and transition) but some countries do not accept animated designs. Bisson says protecting animations would “open up a series of questions”, such as on the novelty requirement and scope of such protection. “It’s important that the Hague System does not act as a filter,” he says. “It’s agnostic as to what can be protected. It is a technical challenge for WIPO but both a technical and legislative challenge for our members.”
Whether the Hague System will accept 3D or video file formats is under discussion in the Working Group on the Legal Development of the Hague System. At its most recent meeting, in October 2025, the Working Group agreed to continue exploring the topic.
Riyadh Design Law Treaty may ring in a new era
Following the adoption of the Riyadh Design Law Treaty in November 2024, the international design system may be about to begin a new era. When the treaty enters into force, it will streamline in participating states the procedures necessary to achieve design protection. Bisson believes this will benefit the Hague System, as the efficiencies and advantages of requiring only a single application are sure to increase as national systems become more harmonized. “If procedural differences can be leveled out,” he says, “the Hague System becomes even more effective.”
If the past century has proved anything, it’s that the Hague System can adapt in response to change. As WIPO Director General, Daren Tang, writes in the foreword to “A Century of Design Registration 1925-2025”: “Navigating the next century will require the same foresight and commitment that characterized the System’s first 100 years. This will ensure that design continues to inspire and shape the world, underpinned by a truly global and accessible system of protection.”
The anniversary of the Hague System will be celebrated at a Symposium in The Hague on November 6, 2025, “100 Years of Design Protection”. Register online to join in-person or remotely or to find the recording.
