Last September 28, during the meeting of the WIPO Governing Assembly, the Hague Assembly, which manages International Design Treaties, moved to modify the Regulations for carrying out these Treaties, thereby introducing Spanish as a procedural language, placing it at the same level as French and English.

By virtue of this modification, starting on April 1, 2010, any international design application presented can be done so in the Spanish language. Additionally, all other communications carried out by the International Office of the WIPO in the course of procedures will be done so in Spanish, placing it on equal footing with English and French.

Currently, with the exception of Spain , no Spanish-speaking country is a member of the Hague Agreement. Given the extent to which Spanish is spoken, as well as its perspectives in future growth, the introduction of Spanish as a procedural language is viewed as an incentive to New Members, reinforcing the use of the international design System, and will result in an undeniable benefit to current Spanish-speakers who use the System.

The introduction of Spanish into the international design system is in addition to its existence in the international trademark system, and constitutes one more step forward in the process of introducing the Spanish language into international registration systems with the aim of facilitating company and user access to the protection of industrial property rights.