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SECTION A
USE OF THE HAGUE SYSTEM
A.7
Refusals of
international registrations
Figure A.7.1 Refusals of international
registrations
Refusals of international registrations
231
Designated offices can refuse to grant protection for an
international registration where the registration is subject
to opposition from a third party, and when it fails to meet
the necessary criteria, such as novelty, as specified in
national laws. If an office refuses to grant protection, it
must notify the IB of this decision within the applicable
time limit, usually six months from the date on which the
registration was published in the International Designs
Bulletin (IDB).
Figure A.7.1 presents the total number of refusals received
by the IB since 2005. The bar chart shows considerable
year-on-year variation in numbers of refusals. In 2013, a
total of 119 refusals were issued, which is considerably
lower than the peak witnessed in 2011 (231), but higher
than the 82 issued in 2012.
Number of refusals
98
39 36 40
191
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Year
139
Refusals of international registrations by
designated Hague member (%), 2013
82
119
Refusals represent only a small fraction of total designations.
For the 2005-13 period, refusals represented less
than 1% of all designations in registrations. This is partly
due to the fact that a number of offices do not carry out
substantive examination and, therefore, automatically
issue protection for designs barring opposition by third
parties. A small number of Hague members accounted
for the majority of these refusals. Of the 119 refusals in
2013, Egypt accounted for 27.7% of the total, followed
the Syrian Arab Republic (25.2%) and the Republic of
Moldova (24.4%). Only six Hague members accounted
for the large majority (95.8%) of all refusals.
Egypt: 27.7% Syrian Arab Republic: 25.2%
Republic of Moldova: 24.4% Armenia: 8.4%
Estonia: 8.4% Georgia: 1.7%
Others: 4.2%
Source: WIPO Statistics Database, March 2014
Figure A.7.2 depicts the refusals of international registrations
for 2013 broken down by Locarno Classification.
At least one Hague international registration was refused
by a Hague member for 23 of the possible 32 classes.
Class 9 (packages and containers) accounted for the
largest number of refusals, followed by Class 32 (graphic
symbols and logos) and Class 13 (tools and hardware).
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