Reform of design law at the EUIPO

On December 8, 2024, the revised European Design Law officially came into effect. The revised European Design Law has a more modern mechanism. This revision mainly involves the following aspects:

Terminology Changes

• The term "Community design" is replaced by "European Union design"
• The term "design patent" is replaced by "design"

Extension of the definition of registered designs

• The definition of a design has been expanded to include “motion, transition or any other type of animation”, indicating that product features can also be protected

Extensions to product definitions

• The definition of a product has been broadened. A design does not necessarily have to be contained in a physical object or take physical form. In addition, the catalogue of examples has been expanded to include sets of objects, spatial arrangements of objects intended to form interior or exterior designs, and graphical user interfaces. For example, store designs, etc.

Extension of Prohibited Conduct

• Prohibition on the creation and use of CAD files to 3D print products containing protected designs
• In addition to previous infringements, it is now also an infringement to create, download, copy, share or distribute media or software that records the design for the purpose of manufacturing a product that incorporates the design or to which the design is applied.

New restrictions

• "Acts with the purpose of identifying or referring to a product as the design right holder" and "acts with the purpose of commenting, criticizing or imitating" will no longer constitute infringement

New Logo

• Protected designs can be marked with the "D" symbol in a circle
• New label facilitates marketing of registered designs and increases visibility of design protection

Fee Adjustment

• The annual fee for industrial design registration has increased. The first annual fee is 150 Euros (5th to 10th year), the second is 250 Euros (11th to 15th year), the third is 400 Euros (16th to 20th year), and the fourth is 700 Euros (21st to 25th year)
• EUIPO uses the date of receipt of the annual fee renewal as the reference date for calculating the renewal fee. Therefore, if you pay the annual fee before May 1, 2025, you will avoid paying the new annual fee after the increase.

Effectiveness

• The EU Design Law will be partially implemented on May 1, 2025 and fully implemented on July 1, 2026. The design law will be transposed into national law by December 9, 2027.