eHague – My Workbench Tutorial
(Latest revision: December 2023)
This tutorial describes the features of the eHague Workbench and walks you through the steps involved in requesting access to an international design registration asset to be added to your portfolio. If you would like to provide feedback or report issues, please Contact Hague.
The eHague Workbench provides you with a view of your Hague System related online transactions and the design registrations associated with your WIPO Account. From the eHague Workbench, you can:
- View a list of all transactions made using Hague System online services.
- View the status of your transactions and other relevant information, such as the request type, submission date, and related registration numbers.
- Download documents, reply to irregularity letters, and find out payment information.
- View a list of the design registrations – published and unpublished – associated with your WIPO Account.
- Add new design registrations to your portfolio.
Table of contents
- How to access your eHague Workbench
- The transactions view
- Opening a transaction
- Design registrations view
- Changing the number of records shown on the screen
- Expanding the data view
- Searching the table
- Filtering the view
- Adding a design registration
- Notifications
Accessing your eHague Workbench
To access your Workbench, you need to log in to your WIPO Account from WIPO’s website of from the eHague landing page.
You will need to log in to your account using strong authentication to access your Workbench. Learn more about strong authentication here our read our strong authentication tutorial.
Once logged in, from the eHague landing page click the “Get started” button in the My Workbench box.
The Transactions View
After logging in to your Workbench, the default view is a list of all your transactions. There are six columns in the transactions table:
- Reference – this shows the WIPO reference number (starting with “970”) or the related application number (WIPOXXXXXX)
- Request Type – the type of the transaction, such as an application, renewal, or correction.
- Processing Status – The status of the transaction.
- Submission Date – The date the transaction was submitted.
- Registration Number(s) – The international design registration numbers that are associated to the transaction.
- Action – If there is an action that requires your attention, a button will be displayed in this column.
Above the table you can navigate between your Design Registrations and Transactions, Search the table using the free text search field, or apply filters.
Using the Search Field
Using the search field, you can quickly search for any type of data that is in your transactions table. For example, if you want to search for a WIPO reference number, simply type that number in the box and hit enter/return on your keyboard (or click the search icon). The table will then show only those matching records.
You can also search for the processing status. You don’t need to enter the entire status, just using one word or a few characters from the word is enough.
If you know the international design registration number of the record you want to find, you can also search for this to bring up the results quickly.
Likewise, you can search for a submission date by entering a partial or entire date.
Using Filters
The Transactions view has various filters available for you to refine the table to show exactly the data you’re looking for. Under the “Design Registrations” and “Transactions” tabs, you will see a link titled “All transactions” followed by two numbers. The number on the left shows you the records displayed with the current filters applied, while the number on the right shows you the total number of records. In the below example, no filters are applied so we can see 14 out of 14 transactions.
To use the filters, simply select the desired filters and click the “Apply” button.
You will then see a new view of your Transactions table with the applied filters. In the example below, the “Applications” filter was selected so the Transactions table is displaying only applications. This example also shows that 4 out of 14 records are displayed.
You can also filter your Transactions table by start and end date. From the filters, first choose your start date.
Then, choose your end date and click the “Apply” button.
To reset a filter, simply click the “Clear” button.
Opening a Transaction
Clicking on the WIPO reference (the number starting with “970” and that is a link) will take you to a detailed view of that specific transaction. Different information will be available depending on the type of transaction. For example, if you clicked on a correction, there will only be documents available. If you clicked on an application, there will be much more information available, such as payment information, as well as possible actions, such as replying to an irregularity letter.
Transaction Summary
The first block of information is the transaction summary. This block is available for all transactions and lists the transaction type, status, and pertinent details.
The transaction details are important to take note of, because this shows you all of the vital numbers related to the transaction.
Documents
The next block is the Documents, which is available for all transactions that have documents. This block contains a table with four columns:
- File name – the file name of the document. Clicking this downloads the related document.
- Type – information on the type of document.
- Sent date – the date the document was sent from WIPO. This is important to note, especially in terms of irregularity letters, because the date of the letter is always the date it was sent from WIPO, not the date it was opened in the Workbench.
- Actions – if the document has an associated action, a button will appear in this column. For example, if the document is an irregularity letter, you will see a button enabling you to reply to the irregularity.
Fees
If your transaction has associated fees, you will see this block. The block will list all associated fees for the transaction. In the example below, the fees are related to an application, so all application fees are listed.
At the end of the itemized list, the grand total is listed. The amount received by WIPO is also listed as is any outstanding amounts. All amounts are listed in Swiss francs (CHF).
Payments
If there are payments associated with the transaction, you will see this block. This block consists of a table listing the amount received, the amount requested by WIPO, the status of the payment, the date of the payment, the payment method, and the ePay number.
The ePay number is a clickable link and it will take you directly to WIPO Pay where you can proceed with payment if you have not done so already. This is convenient because you don’t need to remember the ePay number or search for it in WIPO Pay – everything is populated automatically by clicking on the ePay link.
Design Registrations View
Clicking on the Design Registrations tab will take you to a table listing the international design registrations that are associated with your WIPO Account.
This table consists of six columns:
- Reference – All reference numbers are listed here. The first number is the International Design Registration number. The second line includes our internal reference number (the number that starts with “970”) and the WIPO reference number of the related application (WIPOXXXXXX). The third line indicates the product indication. The fourth line lists the number of designs. The fifth line lists the status of the registration.
- Holder – A list of the holders of the registration.
- Representative - A list of the representatives of the registration, if any.
- Filing date – The filing date of the registration, which is the same as the registration date.
- Publication date – The date on which the registration is expected to be published. If it has already been published, this date will be a clickable link and will take you to the registration as shown in the Global Design Database. If the registration is not yet published, this date will not be a clickable link.
- Expiry – The expected expiration date of the registration.
Changing the Number of Records Shown on the Screen
The Design Registrations table defaults to 10 records per screen. You can view more than the default number by scrolling down to the bottom of the table and selecting the desired number of records to show on the screen.
Expanding the Data View
A registration may have multiple holders and/or representatives, or the addresses for them may be long. To save space, these are not shown entirely on the screen. Clicking on the “Show more” link will expand the record to show all of the related holders and/or representatives to view the complete information.
You can click the “Show less” link to collapse the information again.
Searching the Table
Like the Transactions view, you can also use the free text search field in the Designs Registrations view to search for any text in the table.
Filtering the View
You can use the Filters by clicking on the “All registrations” link under the Design Registrations tab. You can filter by status, filing date, publication date, and expiration date.
After selecting your desired filter, click the “Apply” button. Click the “Clear” button to remove all your filters.
Adding a Design Registration
With the eHague Workbench, you can request to add design registrations to your account even if they were not made with the WIPO Account with which you are logged in. To do this, simply click on the “Add design registration” button at the top right.
To request to add a design registration, you must know the registration number and the filing date. Enter this data and then click the “Find registration” button.
More information about this process is provided in the top row. Click the right arrow button to expand the row and see all relevant information.
After entering the registration number and filing date, click the “Find registration” button. If the registration is found, you will see a green success message. To continue, select the access rights that you are requesting for the registration.
Access Roles
There are two types of access: full access and custom access.
If you select full access, you can access all information and actions on the registration (also known as an “asset”) and can also share it with others and manage access with others. After selecting full access, simply click the “Request Access Rights” button.
If you select custom access, you will need to choose the role and delegation rights for the asset.
There are two roles:
- Editor – can access all information and actions on the asset
- Viewer – can access all information but no actions on the asset
There are two types of delegation rights:
- Admin – can share the asset or manage access for other users
- None – cannot share the asset or manage access for other users
After selecting customer access, choose your desired role and delegation rights and click on the “Request Access Rights” button.
When you request access rights, your request will be sent securely to the authorized recorded representative or, if there is no representative, to the holder. Only the recorded representative or holder can approve your access rights request. When you submit a request, the name and email address that are associated with your WIPO Account will be shared with the person (representative or holder) who can authorize your request.
A confirmation screen will be shown with the above information before you can submit your request. This also allows you to send a copy of the request to the holder. This is only in the case that a representative is recorded for the concerned international registration. If a representative is not recorded, the authorization request will be sent to the holder. Check the “Send a copy to the holder file” box if you would like to send a copy to the holder.
Once you are satisfied with your request, click the “Proceed” button.
You will see a success message at the top of the screen as shown below.
Notifications
After submitting your request, the representative (or holder if there is no appointed representative) will receive an email through which they can securely accept or reject the request. The authorized person must accept or reject the request within 10 days. If it is not accepted within 10 days, the request is automatically abandoned.
After the signature has been approved by the authorized person, the requestor will receive an email notification informing them that the signature has been accepted and that the request has been submitted to the International Bureau for processing.
After the access rights have been approved by the authorized person and processed by the International Bureau, the requestor will receive an email notification informing them that the request was approved.
If the authorized person rejected the request, you would receive a notification similar to the one shown above but indicating that your request was rejected. Such notifications do not include a reason why the authorized person rejected the request.
Every time access rights change, the concerned WIPO Account holder will receive a notification. In the case of the successful addition of a new international design registration to your WIPO Account, you will receive a notification as the below informing you of your access rights.
Should your access rights change in the future, you will receive a similar notification indicating your new or removed access rights.
After you have received the notifications that the international design registration has been successfully added to your WIPO Account, you can consult your workbench where you can find the added registration.