The Council of the EU has recently given its final approval to the the two legislative acts under the design package: the revised directive on the legal protection of designs and the amended regulation on community designs (see here).

The texts adopted update the current design legislation to improve the protection of industrial designs in the era of digital designs and 3D printing.

This was the last step in the decision-making procedure. The acts will enter into force on the 20th day following that of their publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The regulation will apply 4 months later, and Member States will have a period of 36 months to take the necessary measures to transpose the directive.

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In recent years, ECTA has been highly engaged in the domain of design, particularly in the ongoing EU Design Reform. ECTA has regularly engaged in discussions with officials during its Bilateral Meetings with the European Commission and the EUIPO, and has jointly advocated throughout the legislative process with other associations, notably INTA and MARQUES.