Effective from May 2025, the EU’s landmark Design Reform
Package extends design protection to virtual goods, streamlines the
filing process by allowing multiple designs across categories, and
introduces cost changes such as reduced application fees and
increased renewal fees. We explore the package in further detail in
this article.

Key points at a glance


New EU design law has finally been published – (mostly)
in force from 1 May 2025.

Protection extended to virtual goods.

Multiple design applications will be able to cover disparate
products – no longer limited to the same Locarno class.

7-view limit abolished (from 2026).

Additional design fees reduced; renewal fees increased.

New infringement right concerning 3D printing.

Visibility when in use is generally not required for a design
to be protected.

Repair clause now made permanent (for EU designs) and
introduced for national designs in countries that do not currently
have one (although not until 2032).

Unregistered design protection seemingly no longer restricted
to designs first disclosed in the EU.

Background

On November 18, 2024 the European Union published the long
awaited Design Reform Package in its Official Journal. The package
consists of a new Regulation (EU) 2024/2822 on the EU Design
(formerly known as Community designs) and of a new Directive (EU)
2024/2823 setting minimum standards for national design laws across
all 27 EU Member States.

This long-awaited update introduces significant changes to the
design protection framework on EU level and in the EU member
states. The new EU Design Regulation will apply from 1 May 2025.
However, the articles which require the implementation of secondary
legislation will only apply from 1 July 2026. The new EU Design
Directive will enter into force on 9 December 2024. The EU Member
States are required to transpose the Directive into their national
law before 9 December 2027.

Key elements of the reform


New names, definitions, new symbol (from 1 May
2025)

The formerly known Registered Community Design (RCD) and
Unregistered Community Design (UCD) will be replaced with
Registered European Union Design (REUD) and Unregistered European
Union Design (UEUD).

In addition to the old definition of a “design”,
namely “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 law provides further
“the movement,
transition or any other sort of
animation of those features”. So
far, the EUIPO has already allowed digital designs, by filing up to
7 static views that show an animated design at different specific
moments in time, for instance, to protect graphical user
interfaces. Given one of the aims of the reform is to simplify the
requirements to represent designs, it can be expected that the
secondary legislation will allow the filing of JPEGs and MP4s for
motion designs from 1 July 2026, in line with the equivalent
provisions for motion trade marks at the EUIPO.

The “product” definition (“any industrial or
handicraft item other than computer programs”) has been
supplemented with the following wording, “regardless of
whether it is embodied in a physical object or materialises in a
non-physical form”, so virtual goods will
also qualify for design protection.

The new Regulation provides in Article 26a that the holder of a
registered EU design may inform the public that the design is
registered by displaying on the product in which the design is
incorporated or to which it is applied the letter D enclosed within
a circle Ⓓ. Such design notice may be accompanied by the
registration number of the design or hyperlinked to the entry of
the design in the register.


Multiple designs for different product categories (from
1 May 2025)

Under the old Regulation the filing of multiple designs in one
application was only possible if the designs fell under the same
Locarno Class. Under the new Regulation up to 50 designs can be
filed in one multiple application irrespective of falling under the
same Locarno Class.


Cost Reduction (from 1 May 2025)

The fee for one EU Design application remains the same, namely
at €350 but this will no longer be split up into application
fee (€230) and publication fee (€120). However, the fees
for each further design in a multiple application are
reduced from €175 to €125. Taking into
account that multiple applications will be more easily available
due to the abolishment of the unity of Locarno class requirement,
most applicants will end up with substantively lower official
fees.

The bad news for design holders is that the renewal fees,
especially those for the 3rd and 4th renewal
will be increased significantly (first renewal fee from €90 to
€150, second renewal fee from €230 to €250, third
renewal fee from €150 to €400, fourth renewal fee from
€180 to €700).


3D printing (from 1 May 2025)

Design holders will be given a new right to prohibit creating,
downloading, copying and sharing or distributing to others any
medium or software which records the design for the purpose of
enabling a product in which the design is incorporated or to which
the design is applied.


Designs in transit (1 May 2025)

Similar to the EU trade mark regime, design holders will be
entitled to enforce their rights against products which are not
intended to be released for free circulation in the EU but are
merely moved in transit through the EU.


Visibility (from 1 May 2025)

Article 18a clarifies that protection shall be conferred for
those features of the appearance of a registered EU design which
are shown visibly in the application for registration. However,
Recital 13 of the Regulation provides that this does not mean that
all design features of the actual product need to be visible at any
particular time or in any particular situation of use in order to
benefit from design protection. An exception to that principle
applies to the design protection of component parts of complex
products, which need to remain visible during normal use of that
product.


Clarification on disclosure (from 1 May
2025)

The new Regulation will no longer contain Art 110a (5) which
provided that a design which has not been made public within the
territory of the EU shall not enjoy protection as an unregistered
Community design. The aim of this article, which was enacted at a
time when several new countries were joining the EU, was to make
sure that a disclosure in a non-EU country would not lead to an
unregistered EU design right, if the disclosure took place before
the country had joined the EU.

National courts in the EU (for instance the Federal Supreme
Court in Germany) interpreted this Article as meaning that the
protection of an unregistered design requires first disclosure in
the physical territory of the EU, in contrast to the
standard for destroying novelty of a design, which also takes into
account disclosures elsewhere in the world, provided they could
reasonably have become known to the public which is based in the
EU. The combined effect of these provisions under the current law
is that designs first disclosed outside the EU (such as at trade
fairs in the UK, US or Asia) can never be entitled to EU
unregistered design right.

Due to the removal of Art 110a(5) it can be expected that
national courts as well as EU courts will now apply the same
standard for disclosure for the purposes of obtaining unregistered
design protection in the EU as with novelty, meaning that designs
first disclosed at (e.g.) international trade fairs in the UK, US
and Asia should be entitled to EU unregistered design
right provided that first disclosure could reasonably have
become known to the public within the EU.

Nonetheless, since it is still uncertain how the courts will
interpret the removal of Art 110a (5), it is recommendable to first
disclose a design within the physical territory of the EU for the
time being, if one intends to only rely on unregistered EU design
protection. If first disclosed outside the EU, the safest course of
action remains to file for a registered EU design within the
12-month novelty grace period.


Representation of EU designs (from 1 July
2026)

Design applicants, especially from countries in which it is
normal practice to file more than seven representations (e.g. USA,
Japan) will be relieved that the limitation to seven views will be
lifted. The exact number of admissible views will be determined by
secondary legislation which is why this change will only enter into
force on 1 July 2026.

Further requirements regarding the representation of the design
(e.g. new types of views (3D views), visual disclaimers, etc.) will
be determined by secondary legislation and/or a decision of the
Executive Director of the EUIPO.


Repair clause (Regulation: from 1 May 2025m, Directive:
9 December 2032)

So far, the repair clause in the old Regulation, which prevents
design rights being conferred for spare parts used merely to
restore the original appearance of a complex product (such as car
parts), was transitional. The new Article 20a of the Regulation
makes the repair clause permanent. Further, the new Directive
(Article 19) requires the EU member states to implement a repair
clause in their national laws. However, within a quite long
transitional period of 8 years, namely until 9 December 2032,
existing designs for spare parts will still enjoy protection.

The repair clause provides that design protection is not
conferred to component parts whose appearance is dependent on the
appearance of the complex product concerned (“must-match”
spare parts). In line with the ruling of the Court of Justice of
the EU in case C-397/16, consumers need to be duly informed of the
origin of the product to be used for repairing the complex
product.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.