In the United States, design patents protect the ornamental appearance of an article of manufacture or product. The recently-implemented Hague Agreement is an international treaty that provides a streamlined, procedural system for filing one standardized international design patent application (IDA). Once an applicant files a standardized IDA, it can be transmitted to and processed by Hague member countries worldwide. Currently there are 62 member countries, plus the European Union (EU) and the African Intellectual Property Organization (AIPO).
On May 13, 2015, the USPTO rules implementing the Hague Agreement went into effect, marking a sea-change for U.S. design patent practice and HRFM clients. Prior to this, most U.S. applicants had to file separate design patent applications in individual foreign countries, often times resulting in multiple foreign agent and administrative costs at the front-end of the filing process, in order to preserve their international design rights.