{"id":3493,"date":"2026-07-02T14:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/?p=3493"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:15:23","slug":"eu-design-law-reform-phase-2-enters-into-force-on-1-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/eu-design-law-reform-phase-2-enters-into-force-on-1-july-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Design Law Reform: Phase 2 enters into force on 1 July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The second phase of the EU design law reform will enter into force on 1 July 2026. The legal basis is <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/data.europa.eu\/eli\/reg\/2026\/715\/oj\">Regulation (EU) 2026\/715 on European Union designs<\/a><\/strong>. The reform modernises the European design protection system and aligns it more closely with digital and technology-driven forms of design.<\/p>\n<p>In substance, the reform expands the possibilities for protecting digital forms of appearance. In future, movements, changes of state and other forms of animation of design features may also be covered. Non-physical products are also expressly recognised, including graphic works, symbols, logos, surface patterns, typographic typefaces and graphical user interfaces.<\/p>\n<p>The following types of design are therefore particularly relevant in practice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>animated designs,<\/li>\n<li>transitions in user interfaces,<\/li>\n<li>moving visual elements,<\/li>\n<li>graphical user interfaces,<\/li>\n<li>screen displays,<\/li>\n<li>computer-generated designs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The EUIPO filing procedure will also become more practice-oriented. The technical requirements for electronic filings are set out in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euipo.europa.eu\/tunnel-web\/secure\/webdav\/guest\/document_library\/contentPdfs\/law_and_practice\/decisions_president\/EX-26-3_en.pdf\">Decision No EX-26-03 of the Executive Director of the EUIPO of 8 June 2026<\/a><\/strong>. According to this decision, the permitted formats include, in particular, <strong>JPEG<\/strong> for static representations, <strong>OBJ or STL<\/strong> for dynamic 3D representations and <strong>MP4<\/strong> for animated representations. For static representations, up to <strong>10 JPEG files per design representation<\/strong> may be filed. For dynamic representations, one <strong>OBJ or STL file<\/strong> may be filed. Animated designs may be filed as an <strong>MP4 file<\/strong>; in particular, the file must use the <strong>H.264<\/strong> codec, have a frame rate of <strong>24 to 30 fps<\/strong>, a bitrate of <strong>1,200 to 8,000 Kbps<\/strong>, a minimum resolution of <strong>1280 \u00d7 720 px<\/strong> and contain <strong>no audio track<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Another important practical change is the removal of the previous limit of seven views. Applicants will therefore have greater flexibility in presenting their designs. However, the decisive requirement remains that the views must represent the design clearly, consistently and intelligibly. This may be particularly important for complex or animated designs, where the relevant visual features often cannot be adequately captured by a limited number of static views.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, obvious minor errors may be corrected in future, provided that the identity of the design is not altered. This may help reduce unnecessary formal obstacles in the filing procedure and is likely to be of practical relevance, particularly for technically more complex digital filings.<\/p>\n<p>For practice, the reform represents a significant step forward: animated user interfaces, interface transitions, motion sequences, digital product representations and 3D models can now be represented in a much more appropriate way than through purely static views. At the same time, it remains important to choose the representation strategically, as it substantially determines the subject matter of protection.<\/p>\n<p>For rights holders, the reform is a good opportunity to review existing design portfolios and digital assets. Relevant assets may include app and website interfaces, e-commerce animations, digital product environments, on-screen designs and other visual elements of digital products. Early filing may be advisable in order to secure priority and strengthen protection against later competing designs. The 12-month grace period should also continue to be taken into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second phase of the EU design law reform will enter into force on 1 July 2026. The legal basis is Regulation (EU) 2026\/715 on European Union designs. The reform modernises the European design protection system and aligns it more closely with digital and technology-driven forms of design. In substance, the reform expands the possibilities&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3494,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493\/revisions\/3494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreiss.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}