After more than 20 years, the legislation for Registered Community Designs is being updated. The first phase of these changes will come into force on 1 May 2025.

Beyond the semantics of the name change from “Community Designs” to “EU Designs”, the purpose is to modernise design protection to adapt to new technologies. This includes provisioning for animation designs, non-physical products, and 3D printing.

There are also changes intended to facilitate the spare parts market, to allow critique and parody, and to introduce a new (D) symbol which can be used to identify registered designs.

Other changes to the filing and examination process, deferred publication, and fee structure, are intended to simplify the application process (although renewal fees are notably increasing).

Some key changes are highlighted below.

Will existing Registered Community Designs automatically become EU designs?

Yes. Existing Community design applications and Community designs will automatically become European Union design applications and European Union designs (‘EU designs’) governed by the new legislation.

Modernising the definition of “Design” and “Product”

The definition of ‘design’ will be broadened to explicitly encompass animation, including both movement and transition.

The definition of ‘product’ is revised to explicitly include non-physical forms (and may include, for example, spatial arrangements of items intended to form an interior or exterior environment, graphic works, and graphical user interfaces).

Together these changes seek to provide greater clarity in respect of protection for digital-only designs.

3D printing

The new legislation will include the following as infringing uses of a design: creating, downloading, copying and sharing or distributing to others any medium or software which records the design.

This is intended to provide greater protection for designs which are distributed electronically, e.g. for the purpose of 3D printing.

Repair clause

The transitional ‘repair clause’ will now become permanent. This ‘repair’ clause provides an exclusion from infringement if a component part of a complex product is used for the purpose of repair of a complex product so as to restore its original appearance.

However, there will now be a requirement for manufacturers and sellers of spare parts to clearly inform consumers of the commercial origin and manufacturer of the products, so that consumers can make an informed choice between competing products that can be used for the repair. Failure to do so will mean that the ‘repair clause’ cannot be relied on.

Comment, critique or parody

The legislation will now provide the following exclusions from infringement: actions for commenting, critiquing or making parody. The intention is to safeguard the right to freedom of speech.

Goods in transit

The legislation will now provide a right to enforce a registered EU design against goods in transit through the EU (i.e. not intended to be placed on the market in the EU). However, this right will lapse if it is shown that the design registered EU design cannot prohibit placing of the products on the market in the final destination.

Making others aware of an EU registered design

A new design symbol will be introduced. Design holders, or third parties with their consent, will be able to display a letter D enclosed within a circle on their products to raise awareness that an EU registered design applies to the product.

This is similar to the © symbol that can be used to indicate copyright protected works, but bear in mind that the (D) symbol is only intended for registered EU designs (not un-registered EU design rights).  The symbol may be accompanied by the registered design number or a link to the register entry for the design.

Updates to the filing and examination process

For the purposes of improving efficiency of the filing and examination process, the following changes are being introduced:

Centralised Filing and no physical specimens

EU design applications must, from 1 May 2025, be filed directly with the EUIPO, not via national offices. It will no longer be possible to submit physical specimens as a representation of the design.

Multiple design applications, and cost

It will now be possible to include designs with different Locarno “classes” in a single multiple design application (up to a limit of 50 designs per application).

This should provide greater flexibility to incorporate different designs (e.g. relating to a design collection, or different aspects of a product launch) within the same Multiple Design application, and benefit from savings to the overall filing fees.

However, there will be a flat fee payable for each additional design in an application (so there will no longer be a reduced fee for the 11^th design onwards).

It will also still be necessary to renew each registered design separately.

Registration and (deferred) publication

The registration and publication fees will be combined into a single application fee, due on filing.  A deferment fee will additionally be payable on filing, if publication is to be deferred.

An effect of this change is that designs with deferred publication will automatically publish at the end of the 30-month deferment period, unless the applicant explicitly surrenders the design application.

If you hold any designs which are currently deferred, it would be prudent to review whether you need to explicitly surrender any designs to prevent publication (for example if you no longer wish to disclose a particular design).

Renewals

Renewal deadlines will now expire on the exact date relative to the filing date (and will no longer roll to the end of the month).

It will still be possible to pay renewal fees within the 6 months before the renewal deadline, and in the six-month grace period afterwards subject to additional fees.

Renewal fees, particularly the Third and Fourth renewal fees, will be increasing notably as outlined below:

The EUIPO will be using the date of receipt of the user’s request for renewal as the pivot date for calculating renewal fees. For designs having renewal fees due, you may wish to consider paying before the new fees come into effect on 1 May 2025.

For further information, please speak to your usual Dehns attorney, or contact one of our Designs experts shown below.