Revision of the EU legislation on design protection

The proposals to amend Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 (the Community Design Regulation) and in parallel to recast Directive 98/71/EC (the Design Directive) aim to align the design protection system in the EU with the digital age and make it more accessible and efficient for applicants. In terms of digitalisation, the proposed update of the requirements for representing designs would allow applicants to file new digital design types (e.g. by using 3D printing technologies). In terms of efficiency, the proposals aim to make the application procedures cheaper and simpler, the registration procedures faster, while also ensuring greater predictability and legal certainty for individual designers, SMEs and design-intensive industries looking for design protection in the EU. Within the European Parliament, the files have been assigned to the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), with Gilles Lebreton as rapporteur. The committee's decisions to enter into interinstitutional negotiations were confirmed by plenary in November 2023 while the Council agreed on general approaches to the proposals in September 2023. The Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on 5 December 2023, which now needs to be confirmed and formally adopted by both institutions. Third edition. The 'EU Legislation in Progress' briefings are updated at key stages throughout the legislative procedure.