EU consultation on review of EU rules on industrial design (Design Directive)
11-05-2021 Print this page
This consultation aims at gathering stakeholder evidence and views to support the review of the Community Design Regulation and the Design Directive. The review follows from an exhaustive evaluation of the EU legislation on design protection, which was supported by a comprehensive public consultation and two major economic and legal studies. The evaluation shows that this legislation is working well. There are, however, certain shortcomings that need to be addressed to modernise the legal framework and make it fit for the digital age. The Commission announced in its communication of 25 November 2020 entitled ‘Making the most of the EU’s innovative potential – An intellectual property action plan to support the EU’s recovery and resilience’ that it will revise the EU legislation on design protection, following the successful reform of the EU trade mark legislation. Alongside the publication of that IP Action Plan, an inception impact assessment was published for this initiative. The purpose of this public consultation is to serve as complement to the extensive public consultation on design protection already carried out in the context of the evaluation. More specifically, it seeks to obtain views of all those affected by design protection in Europe on selected issues and potential policy options and their impacts.
Stakeholder categories relevant for or interested in the concerned policy area: 1. All sectors of industry, businesses and designers owning/creating designs (including design and creative industries, small and medium sized enterprises, individual designers); 2. Union-wide bodies and associations representing the various economic sectors, including design and creative industries, small and medium sized enterprises, individual designers, design right owners as well as legal practitioners and professional representatives in the area of design law; 3. Member States and national authorities (in particular national intellectual property offices) dealing with design protection; 4. The Judiciary, the legal profession and academia;5. General public, consumer and consumer organisations, civil rights associations.
