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With a design registration, the appearance of a product or design can be protected for 5 years and (after renewal max 25 years). For a design to be registered, it must be new (i.e. not previously made public) and have an individual character (i.e. sufficiently different from designs already on the market).

The European Design Regulation regulates everything about registering a design in the EU and has been updated to reflect new technological developments as of 1 May 2025. Some relevant changes include:

• from now on, the holder of a European design registration can make this known by using a Ⓓ.This shows that the design/object is protected and therefore ma not be copied without permission;
• in addition to physical products, digital objects may now also be protected as designs, e.g. animations, digital files for 3D printing of objects, logos, interior designs, graphical works or symbols, surface patterns and graphical user interfaces (software is, however, not protected hereunder);
• the design may be depicted in the registration in the form of video, photo and computer drawings and may be moving;
• in principle, the design no longer needs to be visible in the finished product to be protected, but it must be visible in the application for the design registration;
• the creation, downloading and distribution of software capable of storing the design for the purpose of copying it, is not permitted. This will overcome 3D printing of copies of protected designs;
• there will be a so-called ‘repair clause’ which will prevent design protection for designs which refer to repair parts of assembled products (such as cars). The aim of this is to give more space to the market for spare parts of cars in particular;
• a single design application can contain up to 50 designs, eliminating the need for a separate application for each object. This offers practical and financial benefits;
• elements of cultural heritage (e.g. costumes or cultural objects) cannot be recorded as designs; and
• as with copyright, design rights will now include an exception for parody: one may use another person’s protected design for parody without the consent of the owner of the design.

With the amended rules, European design rights should fit better in the modern, digital world.

For more information, please contact Micheline Don.