EU designs proposal adds repair clause, store layouts, and virtual protections
European Council and European Parliament provisionally agree a revision of the design protection package | Update brings new life to 20-year-old legislation | Repair clause ‘significant’ with protections extended to store design, heritage costumes and designs of virtual products.
The European Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on a design protection package that could radially extend protection into new areas, such as virtual designs, store layouts and heritage costumes.
This package includes the directive for legal protection of designs and the regulation on Community designs, effectively modernising 20-year-old legislation to address the challenges posed by the digital and 3D-printing era.
Jordi Hereu, the Spanish minister for industry and tourism said in statement: "Good design is very often what makes consumers choose a car, a chair, a lamp, or any other product.
“The agreement will make it easier, cheaper, and faster for designers to protect their creations, even in digital times."
Repair clause
One of the key achievements of the agreement is the liberalisation of the spare parts market.
The 'repair clause' establishes new rules, exempting spare parts used for repairing complex products from design protection.
Louise Popple, senior counsel—knowledge in the IP and media group at Taylor Wessing, described the agreement on the repair clause as “significant”, specifically its addition to the directive.
“This was thought to be a significant stumbling block so the fact that it has been agreed represents real progress. The clause will be welcome news for those in the spare parts market but will limit the rights of design owners/original manufacturers," she said.
Encouraging accessibility to spare parts for repair across the EU is the goal, with the potential result of saving consumers between €340 million and €544 million over the next decade, according to the Council and Parliament.
The EU’s council and parliament said the agreement strikes a balance between the interests of consumers, design holders, and the replacement parts industry, integrating the 'repair clause' into the directive on the legal protection of designs.
This alignment ensures coherence between the European designs system and national frameworks, with a harmonised transitional period of eight years.
Virtual designs and store layouts
"One of the most interesting aspects of the new design law is that it will facilitate the protection of virtual designs,” noted Popple.
This protection is crucial in the transition into a complex digital environment, she explained.
“It will be possible to protect designs of virtual products as well as digital design elements of real-world products.”
To ensure the viability of national and EU design protection systems, the provisional agreement introduces an increase in EU-wide fees.
These fees, higher than those in national-only protection schemes, reflect the broader territorial scope of EU-wide design protection.
Additionally, ‘spatial arrangement’, which includes “items intended to form an interior environment, and parts intended to be assembled into a complex product”, will be protectable.
"This reflects the growing desire for designs such as the layout of store interiors to be able to benefit from design protection and the growing protection of such layouts in other countries,” explained Popple.
She used the example of Decathlon achieving success in China by legally preventing third parties from using layouts resembling its stores, based on unfair competition laws.
Additionally, as a way to address cultural concerns, the agreement prohibits elements of national cultural heritage, such as traditional regional costumes, from being protected as private designs.
To establish clear boundaries, the co-legislators have incorporated the UNESCO definition of 'cultural heritage' into the agreement.
EU-UK divergence
Member states are granted a 36-month transposition period to implement the necessary measures for the directive on the legal protection of designs.
Meanwhile, the regulation on EU designs will become applicable throughout the EU upon its enforcement, presenting challenges for non-EU European states like the UK.
Popple said: “Of course, progress on this also means that UK and EU design law will diverge, meaning designers will have to deal with a two-tier—albeit overlapping—system.
“The UK has indicated that it also intends to conduct a further consultation on the UK design regime next year but whatever changes are made are unlikely to map directly onto the new EU regime."
The provisional agreement now awaits endorsement and formal adoption by both the European Parliament and the Council.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
