Framing Harmonization: Illusion and Reality in the Riyadh Design Law Treaty

From the outside, the Riyadh Design Law Treaty (RDLT) has long appeared as a modest administrative measure. Negotiated in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Trademarks (SCT), it has repeatedly been characterized as a ‘‘procedural treaty’’ concerned with filing formalities rather than substantive reform. The contrast with the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (GRATK Treaty) is striking. Both both treaties adopted in 2024 after 20+ years of negotiation. But only the GRATK Treaty attracted sustained scholarly and civil society engagement; the RDLT attracted almost none.