The European Design Reform Package 2025 – Modernising the EU’s Design System
At the end of 2024, the European Union published the Design Reform Package. The package included a new Regulation ((EU) 2024/2822) and a New Directive ((EU) 2024/2823) that sets out minimum standards for national design laws across all 27 EU Member States.
The package introduces changes to the design protection framework at the EU level and in EU member states. The new Design Regulations will begin from 1 May 2025, and EU member states are required to transpose the Directive into their respective laws before 9 December 2027.
Notable Elements of the European Design Reform
Changes in Terminology and Definitions
Firstly, the terminology used for designs will change. The previously known ‘Registered Community Design’ and ‘Unregistered Community Design’ will be replaced with ‘Registered European Union Design’ (REUD) and ‘Unregistered European Union Design’ (UEUD).
The package also includes a further definition of a design. The definition was previously directed towards ‘the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features, in particular the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials, of the product itself and/or of its decoration’. The new package now allows a design to further include ‘the movement, transition or any other sort of animation of those features’.
As well as the definition of a design, the package further updates that of a product. In this regard, the definition of a product was previously ‘any industrial or handicraft item other than computer programs’. The definition will be amended to include ‘regardless of whether it is embodied in a physical object or materialises in a non-physical form’. This change makes it clear that virtual goods will also qualify for design protection. As such, it is now clear that digital assets are protectable under an EU design.
Updates for European Design Owners and Applicants
The owner or Applicant of a registered EU design may inform the public that the design is registered by displaying a Ⓓ. This may also be accompanied by the registration number of the design.
The owner or Applicant will also be given the right to prohibit creating, downloading, sharing and/or distributing medium or software which records the design for the purpose of enabling a product in which it is to be incorporated. This gives the owner or Applicant further protection in emerging technologies such as 3D printing.
The owner or Applicant is also able to intercept counterfeit goods in transit through the EU.
Multiple designs were previously only allowable in an application when the designs fell under the same Locarno classification. However, under the new Regulation, up to 50 designs can be filed in one application regardless of whether they fall under the same Locarno classification. This may be advantageous from a cost point of view.
Fees
Finally, there will be some changes to European design-related fees. In some good news, there will be a reduction in the fee associated with each further design in a multiple design application (the fee being reduced from €175 to €125). On the other hand, the renewal fees are increasing across the board, with particularly sharp rises for the third and fourth renewals (which take place after 15 years and 20 years, respectively). This may encourage design right holders to be more selective and strategically reflect on which of their designs are the most significant to maintain for the maximum length of time.
European Design Reform – Take Aways
The above changes to the European design protection framework provide both European and overseas Applicants with enhanced maneuverability and protection, modernising the design right system in the EU. Please do not hesitate to contact us at MBIP if you have any questions regarding European designs.
