The MARQUES Designs Team hosted a webinar on recent CJEU rulings and their practical implications on 3 May.

The webinar was presented by Eva Maierski of Lubberger Lehment in Germany and Hanna Held of Held IP in Germany.

The speakers started off by summarising the key changes proposed as part of the EU design law reform, including changes in terminology and definitions, representation, 3D printing, fees, amendments and the new repair clause.

They then discussed three recent CJEU cases. Eva looked at the dispute between Ferrari and Mansory over unregistered design protection for component parts of complex products. She noted that the CJEU judgment (Case C-123/20) had been a landmark decision that appeared to open up options for unregistered Community designs.

In a poll of webinar attendees, 65% thought that Ferrari’s design should be protected following the ruling. However, Eva said that, somewhat surprisingly, the German courts have ruled that the design is not protected; detailed reasons for the ruling are awaited.

Hanna analysed the Monz judgment (Case C-472/21) concerning bicycle saddles and the visibility requirement and said the Court had given a broad interpretation of “normal use”. Based on this decision, 58% of the audience voted that the design should be found to be valid.

The final case covered was the recent judgment concerning a design for a paper dispenser (Case C-684/21), which concerned technical function and the DOCERAM guidance. In the audience poll, 63% of people expected the design to be found valid by the national court.

The speakers also discussed how the proposed reforms would impact each of the cases, and took questions from the audience on some of the issues raised.

Anyone who registered for the webinar can log in to access the resource pack, including the recording and slides, on the MARQUES events page – where you can also find details of all future MARQUES events.