Update on EU Design Reform

The long-awaited Designs Legislative Reform brings forward a new EU design law package with changes to various aspects of design law. These are the first substantive updates since the EU design system came into effect over 20-years ago. The reform aims to simplify the law and clarify the scope and object of protection, whilst harmonising the laws across the EU.

The EU design legislative reform package was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 18 November 2024, and the first phase of the EU regulations is being implemented on 1 May 2025, which will bring some significant changes to the fee structure and to the examination of design applications, amongst other changes, which are summarised below.

Fees – what’s been changed?

The largest fee change can be seen with renewals fees, whereby significant increases have been announced and are to be in force by the “applicability date” of 1 May 2025.  For requests for renewal received after the applicability date, the new fees apply. Therefore, in order to take advantage of the lower-cost current fee structure, rights holders should consider requesting renewal before 1 May 2025. The updated fees are summarised below:

With the aim to simplify the fee structure, the registration and publication fees are being combined into a combined single application fee of €350 (which is the same as the previous registration and publication fees combined).

Applications which comprise multiple designs have also had their fees simplified, whereby previously the registration fees for additional designs included in a multiple designs application were the same for the 2^nd to 10^th design, and then reduced from the 11^th design onwards. Each additional design included in a multiple application now incurs a flat fee of €125 regardless of the number of the design. It is no longer necessary to pay a separate publication fee for each additional design and therefore the cost of filing a multiple design application will in many cases be reduced (unless the application includes more than 20 designs, in which case the new flat fee for each additional design will work out more expensive). The fee for deferment of publication will now also be a flat fee, namely €20 for each additional design.

Furthermore, the following fees are eliminated: late payment of the registration or of deferment of publication fees; fees for recording and registering a transfer; cancellation of the registration of a licence or other right; the inspection of files; communication of information in a file; and fees for the issuance of certified and uncertified copies.

Rationale behind fee changes

Whilst the majority of the fee changes have been made to simplify the laws relating to fees for registered designs, it is interesting to note the fees which have increased. In particular, the application and publication fees remain the same (albeit these have been combined into a single fee), which suggests that the EUIPO do not want to impose any barriers for filing of a registered design. In contrast, the renewal fees are substantially increased, with the likely rationale being that a design subject to renewal has demonstrated commercial value that warrants payment of the increased renewal fee.

Updates to examination

The reform introduces several changes to the filing and examination process to improve efficiency and accessibility for users, and are summarised below:

• Centralised filing – EU design applications can no longer be filed through national offices, and all applications must now be submitted directly to the EUIPO.
• Filing date requirements – The payment of the application fee is now a requirement for establishing a filing date.  Applicants must ensure that the fees are paid within one month of filing, aligning the process with that of EU trade marks.
• Specimens – The submission of physical specimens has been abolished.
• Multiple design applications – Multiple classes of designs can now be filed in a single application, without requiring “unity”, and the total number of designs per application is now limited to 50.
• Deferred publication – Deferred publication is no longer subject to the payment of a publication fee. Accordingly, design holders can no longer prevent publication by non-payment, and will instead be required to explicitly surrender the designs that they do not want to be published.
• Renewal – The basic renewal period will now be the six-month period ending on the date of expiry of the registration (and not on the last day of the month on which protection ends), which aligns with the renewal process of EU trade marks.

New registered design symbol

A new provision has been implemented to allow design holders, or third parties with their consent, to display a design notice on their products indicating that the product is subject to registered design protection. The design notice will consist of a letter ‘D’ encloses in a circle, analogous to the copyright © symbol.

Further changes

The reform has introduced various other changes which relate to the definition of a ‘design’ and a ‘product’, new infringement acts and defences, and updates to the ‘repair clause’. Further, the terminology of the Regulation is adapted to the wording of the Lisbon treaty, with all references to the Community” being substituted by references to the “European Union”, or just the “Union”.

These changes have been discussed in our previous article “EU design law: significant changes in the pipeline”.