20.2. Convention priority: Convention countries

‘Convention countries’ means:

• countries that have signed the Paris Convention – except Australia
• all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), whether or not they have signed the Paris Convention
• countries Australia has a bilateral agreement with to treat design applications there the same way as convention applications.

More details are in reg 3.06(1). A list of convention countries is at www.wipo.int. A list of full members of the WTO is at www.wto.org.

Basic applications covering multiple countries

It is possible to file a single design application that provides protection in multiple countries under:

• the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, (see www.wipo.int for a list of members)
• the Benelux Designs Convention (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg)
• the Treaty Establishing the European Community (see https://europa.eu for a list of members).

An application filed under any of these treaties can be a basic application provided that the country it is filed in is a convention country or a WTO member. Nearly all applications filed under these 3 agreements meet this condition. Consequently, we assume that they are basic applications unless there is clear reason to believe otherwise in a particular case.

New convention countries

For convention priority to apply, the country must be a member on the filing date of the Australian application.

This means that the applicant can claim convention priority if the relevant country:

• joins the convention before the Australian filing date
• leaves the convention after the Australian filing date.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The applicant cannot claim convention priority if the relevant country:​​​​​​​

• joins the convention after the Australian filing date
• ​​​​​​​leaves the convention before the Australian filing date.