In late 2024, the European Union adopted a comprehensive reform of its design law framework – Regulation (EU) 2024/2822 and Directive (EU) 2024/2823 – modernizing a legal architecture that had stood largely unchanged since 2001 and 1998. The reform proceeds in two phases.

Phase I, which entered into force on 1 May 2025, introduced terminological changes (the term “Registered Community Design” was replaced with a single unified term), a new symbol for marking a registered design, an expanded repair-clause exclusion for spare parts, the ability to file multiple designs within a single application without the previous restriction to one Locarno classification, and, for the first time, an explicit definition bringing digital, animated, and virtual designs within the scope of protection.

Phase II, which entered into force on 1 July 2026, does not change what is protected, but rather the technical framework governing how a design is filed – and it is precisely that technical framework that determines whether protection is usable in practice, not merely available on paper.

What Phase II actually changes?

Views submitted with an application. The maximum number of static views has increased from seven to ten, giving applicants more room to represent a design from multiple angles or in multiple variants. The range of accepted file formats has also expanded: JPEG is now accepted for static images, OBJ and STL formats for three-dimensional models, and MP4 (up to 20MB) for animated designs. This last addition matters in particular for designs that are not static by nature – interfaces, animations, moving logos – a category Phase I only recognized as protectable subject matter in the first place, without yet accommodating the file formats needed to actually file one.

Amendments without losing the filing date. Until now, any amendment to an application – including a visual disclaimer excluding a particular element of a view from protection – carried the risk of losing the original filing date, a meaningful risk in design law, where priority frequently decides a dispute. Phase II now permits visual disclaimers and non-substantive amendments without that risk, giving applicants more room to refine the scope of protection after filing rather than getting it exactly right the first time.

Streamlined invalidity procedures. A two-year cap has been introduced on the suspension of invalidity proceedings (previously, suspensions carried no defined limit), alongside a new proof-of-use requirement for earlier trademarks more than five years old when cited as the basis for an invalidity action. This closes a gap that previously allowed a formally registered but factually unused right to be used as grounds for challenging someone else’s design.

Fully electronic EUIPO communications. Correspondence with the Office has moved entirely to electronic channels. A new continuation procedure has also been introduced, along with the ability to correct manifest EUIPO errors within one year of registration.

What stays the same?

It is worth noting explicitly that the existing 30-month deferred-publication period – the mechanism allowing a design to be registered while its appearance remains unpublished, and thereby protected as a trade secret, until the moment of market launch – is not a Phase II innovation, but a retained feature of the prior regime. Distinguishing this from the actual changes matters, given how often sources on the reform conflate Phase I and Phase II provisions.

Why this matters for Serbian companies?

For businesses in fashion, jewelry manufacturing, furniture, and other design-intensive industries, the reform’s practical significance is twofold. First, a single application filed with the EUIPO in Alicante continues to secure protection across all 27 EU member states – that principle of unitary filing is unchanged, and Phase II simply makes the filing process itself more technically reliable and flexible, particularly for designs involving three-dimensional or animated elements. Second, the ability to amend an application without losing the filing date, together with the streamlined invalidity procedures, directly reduces the administrative risk and cost for companies that file new collections or products on the European market on a regular basis.

Companies already filing, or planning to file, designs at EU level should make use of the expanded number and range of view formats to define the scope of protection as precisely as possible at the filing stage itself, rather than relying on later amendments – even though those amendments are now available without risk to the filing date. Companies holding a portfolio of earlier trademarks used as a basis for challenging third-party designs should begin preparing evidence of genuine use in advance, given the new proof-of-use requirement.

This text is informational in nature and does not constitute legal advice.