The new European Design Regulation (the Amending Regulation on Community designs no. 2024/2822) comes into effect on 1 May 2025, bringing with it some significant changes to registered European designs.

Changes to terminology

Reference to ‘the Community’ will be removed and instead, The Community Design Regulation will become the European Union Design Regulation (‘EUDR’), and The Registered Community Design and Unregistered Community Design will become the Registered EU Design (REUD) and the Unregistered EU Design (UEUD).

Existing Community design applications and designs will automatically become European Union design applications and European Union designs.

Changes to definitions of key terms

1. The definition of a ‘design’ has been broadened to include animations.

Under the revised definition, the term ‘design’ will now include ‘the movement, transition or any other sort of animation of’ the features of the appearance of the whole or part of a product. This is intended to cover ‘a progressive change of the design feature(s), with or without retaining their identity.’

This change may mean that it is easier for applicants to register animations and similar designs in Europe compared to the UK, where a narrower approach is taken.

2. The definition of a ‘product’ has also been broadened to include non-physical items.

Under the revised definition, the term ‘product’ will refer to ‘any industrial or handicraft item, other than a computer program, regardless of whether it is embodied in a physical object or materialises in a non-physical form’.

Furthermore, the list illustrating what comprises a product has been broadened to include ‘sets of articles, spatial arrangements of items intended to form an interior or exterior environment, and parts intended to be assembled into a complex product’.

Changes to exclusive rights of registered European design owners

1. Rights holders will be able to prevent unauthorised 3D printing of their designs.

Registered European design rights holders will now have the exclusive right to prevent any third party ‘creating, downloading, copying and sharing or distributing to others any medium or software which records the design’ without their consent. This modification effectively grants owners the right to prevent unauthorised third parties from 3D printing copies of their registered European design.

2. Rights holders will be able to mark products incorporating their designs using ‘Ⓓ’.

The holder of a registered European design may display the letter D within a circle (Ⓓ) on a product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied to inform the public that the design is registered.

Changes to filing and examination procedures for European multiple design applications

1. Introduction of a 50-design limit.

A maximum of 50 designs may be combined in a multiple design application for registered European designs.

2. Removal of the unity of class requirement.

The unity of class requirement whereby all designs in a multiple application must belong to a single Locarno class will be removed. Instead, applicants will be allowed to file multiple design applications containing designs in different Locarno classes.

For example, if an applicant wanted to seek protection for a new car they had designed, they could file a multiple design application containing up to 50 designs to protect various aspects of the new car. They could include a design to the general appearance of the car as well as to individual components such as the headlights, the wheels, the steering wheel, or the seats. Each of these designs may fall within a different Locarno class, but instead of having to file several individual design applications containing designs of only the same Locarno class, applicants will now be able to include each of the designs regardless of their class in a single multiple design application.

Conclusion

The changes outlined above help to simplify existing European design law, bringing it into line with modern advances in technology.

In particular, the broadened definitions of ‘design’ and ‘product’ will allow applicants to protect a wider variety of works including both physical and digital forms of expression. Rights holders will also be able to prevent unauthorised parties exploiting their registered European designs using modern processes such as 3D printing.

The removal of the unity of class requirement when filing a multiple European design application will allow applicants to take advantage of the cost benefit associated with filing a multiple design application without needing each of the designs to fall within the same Locarno class. However, the introduction of a 50-design limit may be an attempt to limit the number of designs filed within a multiple application in light of the removal of the unity of class requirement.

If you would like any further information regarding the new European Design Regulation, please contact your usual Wilson Gunn attorney for advice.