Are you a creative designer in fashion, technology, interior and/or electronics items? Do you want to optimally protect your creations against counterfeiting? Thanks to the new design right, this is now easier than ever. The EU Design Reform Package offers a modern and accessible system that is perfectly tailored to digital innovations such as 3D models. A huge step forward.
Design law protects new and creative designs against imitation. It offers designers exclusive rights to exploit shapes, patterns and other appearance features. Especially with the rise of platforms like Temu, it is important to protect your products.
Why this reform?
The current system for design protection in the European Union was very outdated. National rules vary from country to country, and European Community design law did not meet the requirements of modern times. Smaller designers and companies in particular found it difficult to protect their work due to complex and expensive procedures.
In addition, the digital age brought new challenges, such as the protection of digital designs and 3D printing technology. The EU has wanted to tackle these obstacles with an update of design law.
Image source: ChatGPT
Most important changes
1. Change in terminology
A design right is currently still a ‘product’ where it mainly relates to a physical product. This is adapted to a ‘model’ so that it no longer matters whether it is designed into a physical object or not.
2. Protection of digital designs
Statistical, dynamic and animated models can be registered. All EU national offices will have to use the same technical means.
3. Digitization
It will also become possible to classify the downloading, copying, sharing and distribution of designs on carriers (for example memory cards and sticks) as infringement. Consider software for 3D printing.
Entry into force
The changes will be introduced in two phases. The first phase will start on May 25, 2025, during which changes will mainly be made to terminology. The second phase will start on July 1, 2026, during which most of the substantive changes as mentioned above will come into effect. Because this concerns European regulations, the EU member states have until December 9, 2027 at the latest to implement all changes to national legislation. So this will take a while…
Advantages
The advantages of the Reform Package are that regulations in the EU member states are aligned, the process becomes simpler and cheaper and animations can also be protected. It is becoming more attractive for SMEs to register a model, especially for the creative sector that is mainly active online.
Why a design right can also have advantages was also recently shown in a pronunciation in which Rituals requested the court to prohibit Aldi from offering fragrance stick holders that were too similar to its fragrance stick holders, registered as a model. Aldi was ordered to remove all fragrance stick holders from its shelves within 4 hours of the ruling. But this is not the end yet, Rituals will have to initiate further proceedings to obtain a ruling on potential infringement of its fragrance stick holders. So to be continued.
It remains to be seen what the legal and practical consequences will be of the changes, including for the enforcement of rights and action against counterfeiting. The first procedures are expected to take place during 2026 and 2027. I’ll be watching this closely and keeping you guys up-to-date.
Source: www.frankwatching.com
