Sean Flynn and Ben Cashdan

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) draft Design Law Treaty (DLT) is analyzed by three international design law professors in a video seminar on “What is at Stake in the Design Law Treaty” published by American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and Blackstripe Foundation.

The DLT is set to be finalized in a diplomatic conference this November. But it has received very little scholarly attention. The prevailing legal and policy discourse has largely dismissed the significance of DLT, characterizing it as merely a “procedural” agreement. The seminar challenges this perception, examining provisions that may blur the line between procedural and substantive law and analyzing its procedural elements potentially yielding distributive effects with far-reaching economic, social, and developmental implications. 

Topics addressed in the seminar include:

Does the present draft address concerns raised by delegations, especially those in the Global South?

What about disclosure of Traditional Cultural Expressions?  And the term of protection given to registered designs? What about dotted lines – ambiguous design features where originality may not be claimed by the designer, and where there may be grey areas in the law?

Most of all, who is most likely to benefit from the Design Law Treaty in its present form?

The panel of design law professors in the seminar include:

Margo Bagley, the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law, and is also an advisor to the African Union on international IP negotiations.

Professor Christine Farley, who teaches design and trademark law, including in PIJIP’s annual summer session in Geneva

Thomas Margoni, Research Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law and Criminology, KU Leuven, who teaches EU design law.

The seminar is chaired by Professor Sean Flynn, Director of PIJIP, produced by Black Stripe Foundation, South Africa, and supported by a grant from the Arcadia Foundation.

Watch the full seminar here.