---
kind: "section"
citation: "35 U.S.C. § 388"
title: "35"
title_heading: "Patents"
number: "388"
heading: "Withdrawn or abandoned international design application"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/35/388"
units:
  - "Part V — The Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration of Industrial Designs"
  - "Chapter 38 — International Design Applications"
---

# §388. Withdrawn or abandoned international design application


Subject to sections [384](/usc/35/384.md) and [387](/usc/35/387.md), if an [international design application](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-6) [designating](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-3) the [United States](/usc/35/100.md?p=c) is withdrawn, renounced or canceled or considered withdrawn or abandoned, either generally or as to the [United States](/usc/35/100.md?p=c), under the conditions of the [treaty](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-1) and the [Regulations](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-2), the [designation](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-3) of the [United States](/usc/35/100.md?p=c) shall have no effect after the date of withdrawal, renunciation, cancellation, or abandonment and shall be considered as not having been made, unless a claim for benefit of a prior filing date under [section 386(c)](/usc/35/386.md?p=c) was made in a national application, or an [international design application](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-6) [designating](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-3) the [United States](/usc/35/100.md?p=c), or a claim for benefit under [section 365(c)](/usc/35/365.md?p=c) was made in an international application [designating](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-3) the [United States](/usc/35/100.md?p=c), filed before the date of such withdrawal, renunciation, cancellation, or abandonment. However, such withdrawn, renounced, canceled, or abandoned [international design application](/usc/35/381.md?p=a-6) may serve as the basis for a claim of priority under subsections [(a)](/usc/35/386.md?p=a) and [(b)](/usc/35/386.md?p=b) of section 386, or under subsection [(a)](/usc/35/365.md?p=a) or [(b)](/usc/35/365.md?p=b) of section 365, if it designated a country other than the [United States](/usc/35/100.md?p=c).


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 112–211, title I, § 101(a), Dec. 18, 2012, 126 Stat. 1530.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective on the later of the date that is 1 year after Dec. 18, 2012, or the date that the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs enters into force with respect to the United States (May 13, 2015), and applicable only to certain applications filed on and after that effective date and patents issuing thereon, see section 103 of Pub. L. 112–211, set out as an Effective Date of 2012 Amendment note under section 100 of this title.