Share, tweak, register: your one year safety net for EU design rights

What is the grace period?

In simple terms, the grace period in EU design law gives creators a margin of safety: if you publicly share your design (e.g. prototype, ad or pitch) up to 12 months before filing an EU design application, you will not lose your right to registration. This allows designers to test the waters before committing to formal registration, without conflicting with the protection requirements of novelty and individual character.

The big question: do the disclosed and registered designs have to be identical?

Previously, there was debate over whether, to benefit from the grace period, the version of the design shown during testing had to be identical to, or create the same overall impression on an informed user as, the version filed for registration.

On 12 March 2025, the General Court ruled in case T‑66/24 (Lidl v EUIPO/Liquidleds) that identity is not always required. In this case, an invalidity claim was brought against an EU design based on two earlier designs that were publicly disclosed before the filing date of the contested design. In its judgment, the General Court rejected the invalidity claim, explaining that the grace period exception under Article 7(2) CDR does not require the earlier design to be identical to the contested design. Instead, it was enough that it created the same overall impression as the contested design.

That means designers can make reasonable tweaks to their design – for example, based on feedback during development or testing – and still benefit from the grace period, provided the final design creates the same overall impression as the originally disclosed version.

Why this ruling brings clarity

• Innovation meets flexibility
  • Designers can disclose, experiment and iterate – and still obtain EU-wide protection for a design, even if the final version deviates slightly from the original. The application for design registration simply needs to be filed within 12 months of the first publication.
    
    
• Legal peace of mind
  • If someone later challenges the registered design pointing to an earlier version, the designer can rely on the grace period – provided the overall impression was the same and the application was filed within 12 months of the first public disclosure.
    
    
• Cohesion with EU reform
  • This interpretation aligns with Regulation 2024/2822, effective 1 May 2025, which legally recognises that prior disclosures of designs that are "identical or do not differ in their overall impression" are exempt from the assessment of novelty and individual character.

What this means for designers

• Share your design early to test the market – but make sure to apply for design registration within one year!
• Feel free to implement reasonable improvements or tweaks based on feedback – as long as the final design evokes the same overall impression.
• Document everything: maintain original and updated timestamps, files, photos, ads and prototypes.

A balanced view: where some uncertainty still lingers

While the outcome of the General Court's ruling is to be welcomed, the wording of the new Regulation consolidates the requirements of "identity" and "the same overall impression" into a single sentence structure, without distinguishing which standard applies to novelty and which to individual character (even though this already follows from Articles 5 and 6 EUDR). This creates a structural tension that can cause uncertainty in practice.

author: Birgit Kapeller-Hirsch