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WIPO Global Design Database — multilateral
Layer multilateral
System Aggregated international + national industrial design search
Operator World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Rights covered industrial_design
Coverage Hague International Register + national design records from ~30 contributing offices
Working languages English + WIPO official languages
Connector status skipped for live search (ToS prohibits automation; no public search API; only Hague Web Services for filing-side IP offices)
Last verified 2026-05-16
Manifest entry not listed in coverage/sources.yaml

Detail surveys:

Higher / sibling layers carrying overlapping data:

  • WIPO Hague System direct — for Hague IRs specifically; the Design DB also includes national contributions.
  • EUIPO REUD search — for EU-level designs (formerly RCDs); EU is a Hague member, so Hague-EU designations also visible here.
  • DesignView (likely EUIPO-hosted, design analogue of TMview) — federated frontend over national design registers; not yet investigated.
  • National design registers (where APIs exist) — IP Australia Designs, JPO designs.

Rating: 🔴 Red — ToS

ToS prohibits automation; only Hague Web Services (filing-side, IP-office-only); 24-hour IP block Jump to access details → View on the atlas →

§1 Mission

The Global Design Database is WIPO's flagship public design search, unifying Hague IRs with ~30 contributing national design offices. It's the smallest of the three WIPO databases by contributing-office count because the Hague System has fewer members than Madrid (79 contracting parties vs. 116) and national design contribution is less common.

For agents working on industrial designs internationally, this is the conceptual aggregator. But like its siblings, the public web UI ToS prohibits automated queries, and there's no public search API at all — only Hague Web Services, which is a filing-side back-end for IP offices, not a search surface.

§2 What's unique here

  • Hague IRs in a unified search — Hague IRs are reachable via WIPO Madrid-equivalent processes but the Global Design DB is the consumer-facing search.
  • National designs from offices that don't have their own public API.
  • Hague-specific bibliographic detail that doesn't always flow up to national designations.

§3 Programmatic surfaces

Public Global Design DB web UI

Field Value
Endpoint https://designdb.wipo.int/
Auth none for casual UI use
Format HTML
Cap 100 results downloadable per query
Rate limit UI throttle; the FAQ openly states a 24-hour IP block for "robot" behaviour
ToS posture Same identical "no automated queries" language as PATENTSCOPE + Brand DB
Verdict (zero-infra proxy) 🔴 Red — ToS prohibits; 24-hour IP block enforces
Primary sources Global Design Database Terms of Use · WIPO API Catalog

Hague Web Services — filing-side back-end (IP offices only)

WIPO's catalog ships Hague Web Services, but inspection of the documentation shows this is a filing back-end for IP offices (used for transmitting Hague designations from national offices to WIPO), not a public search surface.

Field Value
Endpoint listed in WIPO API Catalog
Auth IP-office credentials only
Format SOAP / structured filing payloads
Verdict 🔴 Red — wrong shape for our use case (filing, not search; office-only auth)

Hague Express

Public search front-end for Hague IRs specifically. Polite scrape is possible per the 2026-05 connector survey at connectors/wipo.md. Limited to Hague IRs (not the broader Global Design DB aggregation).

Field Value
Endpoint https://www.wipo.int/hague/en/express/
Auth none
Format HTML
ToS posture Subject to WIPO general ToS
Verdict 🟡 Yellow — polite scrape conceivable; smaller scope (Hague IRs only); see BACKLOG Tier 1 Rank 14 for wipo_hague_express

§4 Fees

Hague System filing fees (the source of most Design DB records) live with the Hague System, not Design DB.

Hague System fees: WIPO — Hague System fees Fee Calculator: WIPO Hague Fee Calculator

Design DB access fees: no fee for the public UI; no documented paid tier. Access is gated by lack of available programmatic surface, not by payment.

§5 Access via patent-client-agents

What we cover today

  • No Design DB access. EU-level designs reachable via patent_client_agents.euipo_designs. Other Hague IRs reachable only through individual national connectors where they exist (IP Australia, JPO).

What we should NOT add (and why)

  • Public UI scraping — ToS prohibits; 24-hour IP block enforces. The FAQ language is unusually direct about enforcement.
  • Hague Web Services — wrong shape (filing back-end, not search); office-only auth.

What we could consider

  • wipo_hague_express — polite scrape of Hague Express, limited to Hague IRs (not the full Global Design DB aggregation). [BACKLOG Tier 1 Rank 14]. Smaller scope; could be useful for international-design workflows. Verdict from the original Tier 1 survey was "trivial; also covers other Hague-system designs."

What to monitor

  • DesignView API — EUIPO operates DesignView as a federated frontend over national design registers (analogous to TMview). If DesignView gains a public API, it could be the practical design aggregator we want. Currently HTML-only; not API-accessible. See COVERAGE_STRATEGY.md §8 (open questions).
  • WIPO partner API program — same general pattern as the Brand DB; if WIPO opens a partner tier for Design DB, we'd want in.

Next steps

  1. Quarterly recheck of WIPO API Catalog for new Design DB tier announcements.
  2. Investigate DesignView (likely EUIPO-hosted) for any public API path. See coverage-strategy open questions.
  3. Consider wipo_hague_express if a paying customer needs Hague-specific design search.

§6 Known unknowns

  • WIPO partner API for designs — symmetric to the Brand DB question; no observed public-api.designdb.wipo.int endpoint yet.
  • DesignView API availability — needs discovery research; on the COVERAGE_STRATEGY open-questions list.
  • Hague Express scraping etiquette — what's the polite rate?

§7 References

Primary sources only.

System overview:

ToS:

Hague System (the source of most Design DB records):

Detail survey + wave:

Last updated 2026-05-16.