A package of new legislation updating and amending design protection rules in the European Union start taking effect gradually as from spring 2025; from strengthening protection against digital copies to the registrability of motion, transition and animation designs, here are the main points of interest for the system’s users.

On 8 December 2024, the European Union’s design legislation reform package formally entered into force; the new rules will substantially, albeit gradually, bring changes to both the EU Regulation 6/2002 on Community designs and the EU Directive 98/71 on the legal protection of designs.

The aim of the reform is to modernise the European Union’s design protection system, inaugurated 20 years ago, and bring it up to date with new technologies and realities – such as 3D printing, the “metaverse” and artificial intelligence – as well as to make design protection more attractive for small companies and align EU design and trademark legislation.

The main points of interest to users of the EU design system are summarised below.

Protection for 3D-printed designs and designs featuring movement

The definitions of “design” and “product” have been broadened to cover the movement, transition and animation of features determining the appearance of a product.

According to the new definition, ‘design’ means the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from its features, in particular the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture, materials of the product itself and/or its decoration, including the movement, transition or any other sort of animation of those features.

Moreover, protection is no longer limited to physical objects: a product can be registered as a design regardless of whether it is embodied in a physical object or materialises in a physical form – think designs appearing only on screen/on virtual platforms.

Changes in filing rules

Rules on representation of a design in applications for registration have also been updated to allow video files. Designs belonging to different classes of the International Classification for Industrial Designs under the Locarno Agreement are allowed in a single application; moreover, the limit has been raised on the number of views admissible in an application.

Features not visible all the time

Protection may include features of the design that are not visible all the time (think of a product on which images or videos appear only when switched on): the design’s feature is protected if the application for registration represents such feature with sufficient clarity.

New “repair clause”

A so-called “repair clause” is introduced, which excludes from design protection the parts of a complex product used for the sole purpose of repairing that complex product by restoring its exact original appearance.

Stronger protection from copies

Creating, downloading, copying and sharing or distributing to others any medium or software which records the protected design for the purpose of making a product reproducing the protected design, also as part of a different product, can be considered design infringement. This rule is intended to apply also to 3D printing of copies of design-protected products.

Fees

The package will bring changes to fees, taking effect on 1 May 2025.

Filing fees for the first design are not affected, minor tweaks have been introduced for subsequent designs.

As for renewal fees, the first 5-year renewal is set at 150 Euros and increases gradually with each subsequent 5-year renewal up to 700 Euros for the fourth.

It should be noted that allowing designs belonging to different Locarno classes (see above) to be filed in a single application should maximize savings for multiple applications – as well as simplify the procedure.

Name and symbol

The Community Design is to be renamed European Union Design (aligned, at long last, with the European Union Trademark), and the symbol to represent it will be a D in a circle, similar to the registered trademark’s ® and copyright’s ©.

Taking effect

In practice, the new rules will take effect gradually over a period running from early 2025 to the end of 2027.

Further information

Do you have questions on protecting design in the European Union? Contact us, we are happy to help.

Related content

Flash news – Enterprises with IP rights perform better according new EPO-EUIPO study

Flash news – New Riyadh Design Law Treaty to simplify international protection of designs