Brand owners, in-house legal teams and IP practitioners will soon have wider opportunities to protect the visual appearance of digital and technology-driven products. On 1 July 2026, the second phase of the EU design law reform package enters into force, introducing important changes to the registration of industrial designs across the EU.

The reform is part of the broader modernisation of the EU design protection system, which includes amendments to the Community Design Regulation and a new Design Directive. It adapts design law to market realities in which product appearance is increasingly expressed through digital interfaces, animations, screen displays and other non-traditional formats.

Broader range of registrable designs

One of the most notable changes is the broader range of registrable designs. The updated framework will make it easier to protect animated designs, including interface transitions and moving visual elements, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), screen-displayed designs and computer-generated designs.

For lawyers advising clients in software, e-commerce, gaming, consumer electronics, fintech and digital platforms, these changes open up new filing strategies and portfolio management considerations.

Procedural improvements

The reform also introduces procedural improvements. EUIPO is simplifying the application process and enabling multi-design applications in new formats, including video files and image sequences for animated designs.

This should make registration better suited to digital products and reduce the mismatch between modern design assets and traditional static filing requirements.

Another practical change is the removal of the previous administrative limit of seven views per design. Applicants will have greater flexibility in presenting their designs, provided that the submitted views collectively show the design in a consistent and clear manner.

This is particularly important for complex or animated designs, where a limited number of static views may not adequately capture the relevant visual features.

The new rules will also allow applicants to correct obvious minor errors (immaterial alterations), provided that such corrections do not alter the identity of the design. This should help reduce unnecessary procedural obstacles where defects are technical or administrative in nature.

The reform creates an opportunity for legal advisers and rights holders to review existing design portfolios and identify digital assets that may now be suitable for registration. It is worth considering whether application interfaces, website layouts, e-commerce animations, on-screen packaging or digital product environments could qualify for protection.

Early action may be important. Filing promptly can help secure priority and strengthen protection against later competing designs. Advisers should also bear in mind that the 12-month grace period remains available, allowing a design to be filed within 12 months of its first disclosure to the market by the right holder.

Annual Conference workshop

Given the practical significance of these developments for the MARQUES community, Annual Conference participants are warmly invited to attend Workshop 5 – “The New Age of EU Designs: Practical orientations for valuable and effective protection through design rights following the EU Reform”, presented by the MARQUES Design Team in cooperation with the EUIPO.

The workshop aims to put the design reform into action and tackle issues that may arise with filing and enforcement of these new types of designs. Participants will work through a realistic filing scenario with built-in challenges, such as unity of design, background of design, immaterial alteration and disclosure issues.

The exercise will also address key legal considerations including scope of protection, enforcement strategies and the application of existing design case law to animated designs.

This post was written by Ewa Jaroszyńska-Kozłowska, partner of WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr sp. k. in Warsaw, Poland and a member of the MARQUES Designs Team