Rules on design protection in the European Union will start changing soon, to bring the system up to date with new technologies, make design protection more attractive for small companies and limit design protection for spare parts of complex products.
New European rules on design protection definitively approved by the European Parliament in March 2024 are to amend the EU’s current laws on design protection, namely Regulation No. 6/2002 on Community designs and Directive No. 98/71 on the legal protection of designs.
The changes essentially aim to bring the system up to date with the emergence of new technologies such as 3D printing and artificial intelligence, make design protection more attractive for small companies and align EU design and trademark legislation.
The amendments will take effect gradually over a period running from early 2025 to the end of 2027.
Main changes of interest to the EU design system’s users are summarised below.
Protection extended to digital and 3D printed designs
Amended definitions for “design” and “product” have been extended to cover digital and 3D printed designs, and the amendments introduced make it clear that protection is no longer limited to physical objects and can protect also digital designs and dynamic elements such as movement, transition or any sort of animation that determine the appearance of the product or of a part of it: think virtual objects, parts of videogames, light shows, dynamic billboards.
Rules on representation of the designs in applications for registration are also to be amended accordingly, allowing video files and raising the limit on the number of views included in the application.
Acts of infringement updated
The new rules set forth that creating, downloading, distributing or sharing media or software with copies of a protected design may amount to infringing the rights on the design. The aim is for rules on design right enforcement to be applicable to 3D printing of design-protected objects.
Replacement parts
Designs of components of complex products will not be protected by a EU design if they are solely for the purpose of restoring the original appearance of the product. A harmonised transitional period of protection (8 years) is introduced for designs already granted.
Fees
Filing fees remain low, and renewal fees will be amended to attract small enterprises and individuals: the first 5-year renewal fee will be 150 Euros and increase gradually with each subsequent renewal up to 700 Euros for the fourth. The abolition of the unity-of-class requirement – meaning that designs belonging to different Locarno classes will be allowed in a single application – will also simplify the procedure and maximize savings for multiple applications. On the other hand, however, a cap on the number of designs that can be included in a single application has been introduced.
Name and symbol
The Community Design will be renamed European Union Design (to match 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 ©.
