Council improves the protection of industrial designs

The Council adopts the two legislative acts in the framework of the design package: The texts adopted update the existing design legislation in order to improve the protection of industrial designs in the era of digital designs and 3D printing.

Better protection for designs and models

The directive and regulation adopted will make the procedure to register designs at EU level cheaper and easier and will harmonise procedures between European and national systems. They also introduce the so-called “repair clause” with new rules to exempt from design protection the spare parts used for repair of complex products (such as spare parts for the car-repair sector). There will be a harmonised transitional period to allow that existing designs of component parts are protected during the transition from the existing legal framework to the legislation adopted.

Next steps

Following the Council’s approval today, the legislative acts have been adopted.

After being signed by the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Council, the directive on the legal protection of designs will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force on the 20th day following its publication. Member States will have a period of 36 months to take the necessary measures to transpose the directive.

The regulation amending the regulation on Community designs will enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It will apply 4 months later.

Background

Design-intensive industries represent almost 16% of GDP and 14% of all jobs in the Union. On 10 November 2020, the Council asked the Commission to present proposals to modernise the EU design protection provisions, which were almost 20 years old.

On 28 November 2022, the Commission published a package of measures containing two proposals: a regulation amending Council regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community designs and a directive on the legal protection of designs (recast of directive 98/71/EC). The Council adopted its position on 25 September 2023.

Further information: European Council