It's interesting to see that in today's aesthetic-driven consumer age, the success of a product can be influenced by its appearance or design. Think of that flashy pair of rubber shoes in a shop window or the familiar lines of a sports car cruising down the street that caught your eye.

If you need some more examples of how design can make an impact, consider the iconic designs of the Volkswagen Beetle, the Coca-Cola bottle, and Apple iMac that are instantly recognizable.

The importance of design has even generated not one but two presidential proclamations to remind us of its significance. One was in 1974 when the third week of September of every year was designated Design Consciousness Week (Proclamation 1259, s. 1974). Another was in 2011 when the  third week of both March and October of every year were declared Design Week Philippines (Proclamation 277, s. 2011).

With this in mind, it's not surprising that industrial design, or ID, should be considered a valuable intellectual property, or IP, asset that business owners and designers need to protect if they want their products to stand out among their competitors.

In the Philippines, ID is protected under the IP Code. Specifically, this protection gives designers and owners of a registered ID the right "to prevent third parties from making, selling or importing articles bearing or embodying a design which is a copy, or substantially a copy, of the protected design, when such acts are undertaken for commercial purposes."

But how do designers protect their designs once they step onto the global stage? Fortunately, there is now an easy way to do this.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, or IPOPHL, held public consultations last August on The Hague System for International Registration of Industrial Designs as part of the preparations for the Philippines' accession to The Hague Agreement by 2024.

Under The Hague System, local designers can take advantage by registering and protecting their designs internationally in a simple and cost-effective way. Through an online mechanism for securing and managing design rights in multiple jurisdictions — including over 90 contracting parties — they only need to utilize a single application with minimal paper work in order to register their designs globally.

This system will prove particularly advantageous for our small and medium enterprises who want to avail of the services of The Hague System and enjoy the benefits of reduced cost in filing fees.

Aside from protecting our local designs, the Philippines' accession to The Hague Agreement will also be beneficial to our economy as foreign applicants and designers can take advantage of The Hague System to facilitate technology transfers and commercialization of their designs in our country, which is considered one of the fastest growing economies in Asia.

As the Philippines takes the next steps towards acceding to The Hague Agreement, the most important thing that our Filipino designers need to consider is that they should be aware that their designs can be protected separately from their businesses' processes and brands. As such, they should go and register their designs.

On the part of IPOPHL, we will be conducting an information campaign to spread the word about The Hague System at the ground level to inform the public. And of course, we held our consultation last month to ensure that IP stakeholders' opinions are taken into consideration in forming the Philippines' position in acceding to the treaty.

We hope all of these efforts will lead to even greater breakthroughs for our Filipino designers in global markets, as well as sustain the development and promotion of the Philippines' design capability.