KEI Letter to USPTO on WIPO Design Law Treaty Federal Funding Disclosure Issue

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has sent a letter to Katherine Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) concerning an issue in Article 3 of the the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Basic Proposal For The Design Law Treaty (DLT).

On November 11-22, 2024, WIPO will convene in Riyadh a Diplomatic Conference to Conclude and Adopt a Design Law Treaty (DLT). In the text of the currently proposed treaty, Article 3 reads as a closed list of information that a member state can require in an application for a design patent. This list seems to be inconsistent with US law regarding the requirement that applicants disclose federal funding of inventions.

KEI’s letter discusses the relevant provisions and highlights 100 example disclosures in existing US design patents. Our letter asks Director Vidal for a meeting to discuss the issues prior to the November 11th Diplomatic Conference.

KEI’s full letter to USPTO is available here: KEI-USPTO-Letter-WIPO-DLT-Article3-25Oct2024