This paper addresses the exception to the protection of industrial designs under the three-step test of TRIPS Art.26(2). The TRIPS designs exception remains untested, whereas the copyright, the trade mark and the patent exceptions have already been subject to scrutiny by WTO panels. The first part of this paper develops a prediction on the interpretation of Art.26(2) in light of its textual interpretation, guided by insights from TRIPS preparatory work and by previous WTO decisions relating to copyrights, trade marks and patents' three-step tests, due to their resemblance to the designs' third-step test. In the second part of the paper, the prediction is applied to the 'repair clause' exception.