The WIPO Assemblies ended on Wednesday night with agreement on a range of measures, including convening a diplomatic conference to revise the Lisbon Agreement on appellations of origin and geographical indications, as well as establishing the process and procedures to appoint a new director general next year.

However, the assemblies failed to agree a programme and budget for 2014/15, while progress on the design law treaty was also delayed.

David Stone, partner at Simmons & Simmons in London and chair of the MARQUES designs team, said: “It is in the clear interest of designers, and especially SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises], that design filing practice is harmonised around the world. Costs will fall, and designers and consumers will benefit.

“For the last five years, the SCT [Standing Committee on Trade Marks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications] has worked hard to draft proposed text for a harmonising treaty. This is a hiccup, but hopefully only a short one. With goodwill from member states, the General Assembly will sort this out in December, so that a diplomatic conference can be convened in 2014.”

The assemblies, which bring together representatives of WIPO’s member states every September, also elected P?ivi Kairamo, Finland’s permanent representative to the United Nations, as chair of WIPO’s General Assembly from 2013 to 2015.