EU announces Design Rights reform from 1 May 2025
Applications for registered EU designs can be filed at the EUIPO and offer a convenient, cost-effective way of obtaining design protection across all 27 EU states.
Updates to the existing design regulation were agreed late last year, representing the first significant reform to the 20+ year old design protection system. The reform aims to make the system more attractive, efficient, and better aligned with the evolving nature of designs and technological advancements in modern society.
Some of the key changes, many of which will apply from 1 May 2025, are summarised below:
- What were called ’Community designs’ are updated to ’EU designs’.
- An EU design application can include up to 50 designs.
- Multiple designs in an application no longer need to belong to the same Locarno class.
- It will be possible to include more than 7 views of the design.
- Filing fees are reduced and simplified to €350 for the first design and €125 for each additional design.
- Renewal fees, however, increase significantly and exponentially over time. Renewing early – prior to 1 May 2025 – may be advisable, because for requests made prior to 1 May 2025, the ’old’ fees apply even if the renewal is not yet due.
- Renewal fees will be due on the five-year anniversary from filing, rather than by the last day of the month in which it falls.
- Deferred publication fees are abolished; a design will need to be actively surrendered to prevent it being published.
- Fees for registering transfers, cancellations and licences are abolished.
- The term “design” is broadened and modernised to include animations, movements and transitions.
- Using a Ⓓ symbol to identify a registered design is officially endorsed by the EU.
If you are interested in reading more, please see our more detailed report here.
Some of the details for change depend on forthcoming secondary legislation not yet finalised, so we will continue to monitor the developments and provide further updates on the practical implications of these changes to EU design law as they are implemented.
If you would like to discuss EU Design Rights in more detail please contact the author, or your usual Barker Brettell attorney.
