Re-defining Design Protection in the European Union – What it means for your business

On 1 May 2025, the first phase of the European Union’s long-anticipated design law reforms come into effect, with the second phase of changes being brought in on 1 July 2026. These changes aim to modernise EU design legislation to reflect current and future changes in technology, and to future-proof the legal framework as much as possible so that it remains fit for purpose for decades to come. This article summarises the main changes and what they mean for your business. In later articles, we will examine how the reforms affect the scope, registrability and enforcement of EU designs.

The New “EU Design”:

Under the changes, designs registered by the EUIPO will now be officially known as “Registered European Union Designs” (REUDs) rather than “Registered Community Designs” (RCDs). The new terminology applies retrospectively to cover all design registrations previously issued by the EUIPO.

Changes to Multiple Design Applications:

Under the new EU Design laws, the previous requirement for each design within a multiple design application to be within the same Locarno classification has been removed. This is likely to be of significant benefit to many Applicants, as it allows multiple products to be protected by way of a multiple design application, even if those products are very different to one another. This has the potential to offer significant cost savings to Applicants. As an example, this means that luxury goods manufacturers will be able to file a single application to cover watches (class 10), bracelets (class 11), handbags (class 3) and cosmetics (class 28); this would likely have required four separate applications under the old system. This change will also help designers of complex products, for example in the automotive and aerospace sectors, where individual component parts may have been classified differently to each other, as well as to the end product. However, large-scale design filers should note that the reforms impose a new limit of 50 designs in a single application.

New Rights for Design Right Holders:

From 1 May 2025, the scope of design protection in the EU is being broadened, extending protection within the digital realm and to new types of design. Holders of EU design rights will now have the right to prevent third parties from creating, downloading, copying, sharing or distributing any medium or software that records the design, enabling them to take action against unauthorised 3D printing or use in virtual worlds. In addition, the definitions of “product” and “design” are being updated to expressly cover animation, movement and transition, as well as intangible products such as projections of light and spatial arrangements that form interior or exterior environments, which will ensure that technological advancements are properly recognised under the new EU Design framework. However, the rules that restrict the types of representations that can form part of an EU design application are not going to change on 1 May 2025. This means that Applicants will still need to define their design in no more than seven static views. This will limit the immediate impact of these changes, as in many cases it will be difficult to convey animation and movement in just seven images. We understand that the rules on representations will change as part of the second phase reforms in July 2026, likely enabling Applicants to file a much greater number of views, and potentially video clips or CAD models of their designs.

These new rights are a welcome development for many industries, such as automotive, MedTech, gaming and fashion, where digital designs can often be as valuable as physical ones.

A New Repair Clause:

The new repair clause stipulates that design protection does not extend to a component part of a complex product if the part is used solely to restore the product’s original appearance. Crucially, the use must be to enable repair, not to create alternative products or for decorative purposes, and the component part must visually match the original design and be necessary to restore the product’s appearance. Therefore, under the new Repair Clause, third parties will be able to manufacture and sell “must match” spare parts for use in repairing complex products.

Changes to Fees:

The EUIPO’s design fee schedule has been revised to reflect a number of changes under the new reforms, most notably:

• Increases to the renewal fees
  • • Under the old system, design renewal fees increased over time, but remained relatively modest even up to the maximum 25 year term of the design. However, under the new system, the renewal fee increases are more substantial at each renewal stage and in particular towards the later stages of the 25 year term of the design:

  New fees

  	Pre-reform official fee	Post-reform official fee	Increase
  Pre-reform official fee Post-reform official fee Increase 1st renewal (5th anniversary)	€90	€150	+67%
  2nd renewal (10th anniversary)	€120	€250	+108%
  3rd renewal (15th anniversary)	€150	€400	+167%
  4th renewal (20th anniversary)	€180	€700	+289%

• In addition, renewal fees will now become due by every fifth anniversary of the filing date, rather than the last day of the month in which that anniversary falls as under the old system. Depending on when the design application was filed, this could have the effect of bringing the renewal deadline forward by up to 30 days.

• Merging of the former “registration” and “publication” fees into a single application fee, which will be due in full when the application is filed.
  • This will impact Applicants who defer publication of their design application:
    • Applicants who routinely defer publication of their application and choose to abandon their rights prior to publication to avoid paying publication fees will no longer be able to do this.
    • In addition, Applicants can no longer prevent publication of a design application by failing to pay the publication fee, since this fee is now merged into the application fee due on filing. This means that any Applicants wanting to prevent publication of the design application will need to do so by submitting a request to surrender any designs that they do not want to be published.
  • A simplification of official fees for multiple design applications:
    • The EUIPO will no longer offer discounts where an application contains more than ten designs, and instead will charge a flat application fee for each additional design. As a result, in most cases, Applicants should pay slightly less (if not the same) in official application fees as they would have paid under the old system.
  • Removal of the official fees to record a transfer of ownership.
    • This is a very welcome move, especially as the old fees were relatively high at €200 per design, capped at €1000 per transaction. We suggest that design owners review their registered design portfolios to make sure that the details of the registered owners are up-to-date, and to record any transfers of ownership that remain outstanding.
  • On a similar note, whilst the official fees payable to the EUIPO to record a licence, charge or other right affecting a registered design will remain as-is, it is worth noting that the charges to cancel the corresponding entries on the register are also going to be abolished.

Concluding Thoughts:

Overall, whilst the new repair clause and increased renewal fees will require businesses to take a more proactive approach to managing their Design portfolios, the reforms make the EU design system more relevant, efficient and commercially viable in today’s digital and highly competitive markets. In later articles, we will explore how businesses can unlock the potential of the new EU design framework to protect and commercialise their designs across the EU.

This article was prepared by Senior Patent Attorney Joanne Meredith and Max Theiss.