EU design law changes phase one: what changes have come into force?

The European Design Regulation regulations came into effect on 1 May 2025. The reformed legislation is but a first wave of changes, known as phase one, and is intended to maintain the system’s relevance and ensure greater legal certainty in light of new technologies. In this article, we summarise these changes and indicate when phase two changes will apply. 

Terminology updates

The names of certain terms have been revised for clarity and certainty, but most likely because the ‘new’ terms have been the obvious choice for years:

• Community Designs are now referred to as EU Designs.
• Registered and Unregistered Community Designs are now called Registered EU Design (REUD) and Unregistered EU Design (UEUD) respectively.
• The Community Design Court is now known as the EU Design Court.

Broadened Definitions

Technological improvements have led to instances of new designs which do not exist as physical products e.g. NFTs, animations, video game items etc. Consequently, the definitions of products eligible for design protection have been expanded:

• 'Design' now explicitly includes 'the movement, transition or any other sort of animation' of the features of the appearance of the whole or part of a product.
• 'Product' now includes non-physical items but excludes computer programs.
• Examples of what may constitute a product has also been expanded to include the spatial arrangement of items intended to form an interior or exterior environment (such as a shop layout), graphic works, symbols, logos, surface patterns and graphical user interfaces.

Expansion of rights and limitations

3D printing activities (REUD only) - it's now infringement of a design to create, download, copy and share or distribute to others any medium or software which records a design for the purpose of 3D printing.

Two new limitations apply i.e. acts that do not constitute infringement of an REUD or UEUD:

1. Identification or referencing: acts carried out to identify or refer to a product as that of the design right holder, e.g. to show product compatibility.
2. Comment, critique or parody: acts for commenting, critiquing or making parody are permitted to safeguard the right to freedom of speech.

Repair clause exception

The temporary ‘repair clause’ has become permanent. The repair clause is an exception to the scope of design protection, whereby REUDs and UEUDs are unenforceable against spare parts of complex products. Note that this rule is subject to the following conditions:

• The design, i.e. spare part, must be part of a complex product, e.g. a car. 
• The spare part must be intended to repair the complex product.
• The spare part must restore the original appearance of the overall, complex product.

New design notice symbol - REUD only

The amended regulations introduce the design symbol, (D). Akin to the © and ® symbols used for copyright and trade mark protection respectively, the design symbol can be used by design holders, and authorised third parties, to put the public on notice that they possess registered EU design protection for a given product.

Registration process - REUD only

Several updates aim to simplify and modernise the registration process:

• All applications must now go directly through the European Union Intellectual Property Office, not national offices.
• The application fee must be paid within one month of filing to secure the filing date.
• Physical specimens of designs are no longer accepted.
• Up to 50 designs can be filed per application without being limited to designs falling within the same class of product. This will reduce overall filing fees for bulk filings.
• The publication fee has been removed and a request to defer publication must thus be paid on filing. If the deferment fee was not paid on filing then the application will need to be withdrawn if the holder does not wish their design to be made public.
• Renewals are now based on the actual expiry date, not the end of the expiry month, aligning with trade mark rules.

Entitlement procedure

If a person believes they are the rightful owner of an EU registered or unregistered design, they can initiate proceedings to obtain recognition as the legitimate holder without needing to invalidate the design right first.

Updated fee structure - REUD only

The fee structure has been simplified, reducing the number of points during the registration process that fees must be paid. Whilst costs during the application process will be cheaper, renewal fees have increased. As such, design holders will ultimately pay more overall the more periods they renew their designs for.

When will phase two changes apply?

The phase two changes will apply next year from 1 July 2026. These will include amendments to the design representation, invalidation and appeal procedures. Design holders should note that they will not easily be able to enjoy the full benefits of all the phase one changes, such as protection of animations, until the phase two changes are implemented.

For further information or advice, please contact our intellectual property team.