Community design

The Community design is the unitary title protecting the appearance of a product throughout the European Union. It is governed by an EU regulation and administered by the EUIPO. The regulation as revised in 2024 now calls it the European Union design, but the expression Community design remains in common use. It exists in two forms: the registered design and the unregistered design.

The registered Community design

Registration is obtained by filing with the EUIPO, which checks the formalities without examining novelty or individual character. Protection lasts five years from filing and may be renewed in five-year periods up to twenty-five years. The owner may prohibit any use of a design that does not produce on the informed user a different overall visual impression, whether or not there is copying. Publication may be deferred to preserve the confidentiality of a launch.

The unregistered Community design

A design disclosed to the public within the European Union enjoys, without any formality, three years of protection from its first disclosure. That protection is limited: it allows action only against copying, not against independent creation. It is particularly useful in fast-moving sectors such as fashion, where registering every creation would be too costly. Proof of the date and place of first disclosure is then decisive.

Litigation

Infringement actions and counterclaims for invalidity fall to the Community design courts designated by the Member States, the Paris judicial court in France, whose injunctions may extend to the whole Union. Direct invalidity claims are brought before the EUIPO. In practice, the Community title combines with the French design, the Hague System and copyright. The firm handles such disputes, as presented in the entry on the design infringement action and as part of its intellectual property practice.