Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union affecting IP rights

Each member state belongs to a group formed of three member states that work closely together in an 18-month Trio Programme. During the first half of 2023, Sweden held the EU presidency, after France and the Czech Republic, which are member states forming part of the same trio.

The presidency involved, among other duties, leading different working groups in which proposals are negotiated before they are considered at the ministerial level.

According to the EU Council, the presidency has further involved focusing on a number of priorities including competitiveness within the EU, in which the area of intellectual property (IP) rights has an important role. Within this focus on IP, some of the objectives of the presidency were to highlight the entry into force of the unitary patent system, review the design protection legislation and support measures to promote open science, which were adopted at the Competitiveness Council meeting on May 23, 2023.

The working group on IP negotiated in March 2023 a working document with both a proposal for amending the Council regulation No 6/2002 on community designs—including repealing Commission Regulation No 2246/2002—and a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of designs, published in November 2022.
These proposals were the first real substantive review of EU design law in more than 20 years.

This working document describes two main problems of importance for all EU member states. One of the mentioned problems is related to the discouragement of business—especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and individual designers seeking to register their design nationally or at the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) due to high costs, complexity and delays in obtaining protection.

Proposed solutions are, therefore, lower fees, and harmonisation in design representation, new technology acceptance and procedures between member states.