El Salvador's Legislative Assembly Moves to Ratify WIPO Design Registration Treaty

By Edy Portal, Eproint

A legislative committee in El Salvador has issued a favorable opinion recommending ratification of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement, an international treaty concerning the registration of industrial designs. The recommendation came from the Assembly's Committee on Salvadorans Abroad, Legislation and Constitutional Affairs, according to a report published on the Legislative Assembly's official website, and now moves forward for a vote by the full legislature. 

The treaty in question is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Hague Agreement governs the international registration of industrial designs and was first adopted in 1925, establishing a system known as the Hague System that allows industrial designs to be protected in multiple countries or regions through minimal formalities. The treaty has been revised several times over the past century, with the most recent major revision — the Geneva Act — adopted in 1999. 

An industrial design, in intellectual property terms, refers to the visual or ornamental appearance of a product — its shape, pattern, or decoration — as opposed to its technical function, which would instead fall under patent protection.

According to WIPO's own explanatory materials on the Geneva Act, the treaty allows designers and companies to protect their industrial designs in multiple member countries through a single international application, rather than filing separate applications in each country where protection is sought. It's worth noting, however, that WIPO's role is limited to administering this filing procedure: as the organization explains, the International Bureau of WIPO does not evaluate whether a design is novel, and any substantive review of a design's originality remains the responsibility of each individual country's own intellectual property office. 

For El Salvador, joining the Geneva Act would mean that Salvadoran designers and businesses — as well as foreign companies seeking protection in El Salvador — could file one international application covering multiple countries, instead of navigating separate national procedures. Neighboring Central American countries have taken similar steps in the past: El Salvador already joined other WIPO-administered agreements, such as the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Budapest Treaty, back in 2006, alongside Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. 

The committee's favorable opinion is a procedural step; formal ratification and entry into force would still require full approval by El Salvador's National Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa) and the deposit of the country's instrument of accession with WIPO.