Explanatory note

This Order, made pursuant to section 13(1) of the Registered Designs Act 1949, declares the countries specified in Schedule 1 to be convention countries for the purposes of all the provisions of that Act. The majority of countries specified in this Order have acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (“the Paris Convention”) (as revised at Stockholm in 1967) (Cmnd. 4431). Most of them have been declared to be convention countries pursuant to 67 separate orders, the earliest of which was made in 1901 and the last in 1993. All these orders, in so far as they have effect in relation to designs, are made or treated as having been made under section 13(1) of the Registered Designs Act 1949. This Order revokes the orders making the earlier declarations in respect of designs and brings together all declarations in respect of such countries for the purposes of all the provisions of the Registered Designs Act 1949 into one instrument.

Included in the Order are also the following countries which have acceded as such to the Paris Convention since the last order (S.I.1993/1257) was made: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Guyana, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Paraguay, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.