Managing Intellectual Property magazine has announced that on 7 December the US Senate approved US membership of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs. The current total of Hague Agreement countries stands at 45 (plus the European Union in its own right). Given the considerable overlap between trade mark registrability and design registrability in Europe, the ability of the US to use the WIPO-administered agreement as a springboard for securing better protection in Europe makes this move very important.