The new EU Design Regulation and Directive
The current European Designs system is over 20 years old. Consequently, the European Design Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 and Directive 98/71/EC have been updated in order to simplify the system and to keep up with advances made in technology.
The updated Regulation and Directive were formally endorsed by the European Parliament on 14 March 2024. Entry into force of this new law is scheduled for February 2025. Each member state of the European Union will then have to update their national legislation accordingly.
Below is a summary of the key changes which will come into effect. Not all the changes are covered in this blog. The updated Regulation and Directive can be found here (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2024-0164_EN.html#title2) and here (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2024-0165_EN.html)
Firstly, Design protection in Europe will no longer be known as a ‘Community design’, instead the term has been replaced with ‘European Union design’ (‘EU design’). In addition, the ‘Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs)’ has been replaced by ‘European Union Intellectual Property Office’.
The biggest change is that to the definition of a Design, which has been updated to recite ““design” means the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its decoration, including the movement, transition or any other sort of animation of those features”. In addition, the definition of a Product has been updated to recite ““product” means any industrial or handicraft item other than computer programs, regardless of whether it is embodied in a physical object or materialises in a non‑physical form, including: (a) packaging, sets of articles, spatial arrangement of items intended to form an interior or exterior environment, and parts intended to be assembled into a complex product; (b) graphic works or symbols, logos, surface patterns, typographic typefaces, and graphical user interfaces;”. These changes enable EU Designs to protect designs that are not embodied in a physical object.
The rights conferred by an EU design have been also clarified and now include the prohibition of “creating, downloading, copying and sharing or distributing to others any medium or software which records the design” for the purpose of enabling a product to be made to the design. This amendment has been made in order to aid right holders in preventing illegitimate copying of their protected designs, in particular, in view of the wide-spread use of 3D printing.
The current transitional repair clause contained in Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 is to become a permanent provision. However, the repair clause has been amended to be explicitly limited to component parts of a complex product upon whose appearance the protected design is dependant and which is used for the sole purpose of the repair of that complex product so as to restore its original appearance. In addition, a new clause has been added which requires the manufacturer or the seller of a component part to clearly indicate who manufactured the replacement part and its commercial origin to ensure that consumers are not mislead
Similar to Patent and Trade Marks, a new Article 26a has been inserted which allows the Design Right holders to inform the public that the design is registered. For Designs this will be represented by using the letter D enclosed within a circle
Multiple applications will be allowed having a maximum number of 50 designs combined in one multiple application. In addition, it will no longer be a requirement that all of the Designs in a multiple application belong to the same class of the International Classification for Industrial Designs.
Finally, the Regulation has been updated to stipulate that notifications from the Office and communications to the Office should be by electronic means, applications are to be filed by electronic means, publications may be effected by electronic means, Registration certificates and copies will be issued by electronic means and The Register may be maintained in electronic form.
The updates to the Designs Regulation and Directive appear to be sensible in order to be effective and relevant with the advances being made in technology. However, since the UK is no longer part of the EU, these changes mean that EU Design Law will soon diverge from that of the UK. We will have to wait and see whether similar amendments will be made to the UK Design Law.
If you need any assistance with filing an EU Design application, please contact us.