On Monday, 24 March 2025, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered the following statement on design protection for graphical user interfaces at WIPO’s 48th session of Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT). Under the topic of industrial designs, the Committee is considering two submissions. The first submission is an updated proposal (SCT/44/6 Rev.4) on a Joint Recommendation for Industrial Design Protection for Designs for Graphical User Interfaces, submitted by Canada, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Union and its member states. The second paper (SCT/46/5) is a proposal by the African Group for a Study on the Impact of Design Protection for Graphical User Interface (GUI) Designs on Innovation. It was in the context of the discussions on these two papers that KEI delivered the following a statement based upon these notes.
At the Riyadh Diplomatic Conference on the new WIPO Design Law Treaty, KEI had asked that there be flexibility for governments to require, on an application for a design protection, information on whether or not a design is implicated in a standard. Standards are often important for graphical user interfaces. If there is an effort to extend design protection to graphical user interfaces, governments must have every recourse to address the potential anti-competitive consequences and the potential harm to consumers, in those cases where the GUI either is or should be part of a standard.
Any non-binding recommendations regarding protection of graphical users interfaces should include a recognition that countries that protect GUIs can and should address the challenges and problems that arise when the graphical user interface is implicated in a standard.