Design rights can build IP protection, EU Lego ruling shows

Featuring in Law360, Christoph Moeller explores the recent EU Lego ruling and how it serves as a significant reference point for understanding the interplay between technical functionality and design protection within the EU's legal framework for community designs.

On Jan. 24, the European Union General Court handed down a decision in Delta Sport Handelskontor GmbH v. European Union Intellectual Property Office, involving a legal dispute over the validity of a registered community design owned by Lego AS, which depicted a building block from a toy building set.

Delta Sport — a company based in Hamburg, Germany — challenged the design's validity on the grounds that its features were solely dictated by its technical function, arguing that such designs were not eligible for protection under the EU's design regulations, specifically Article 25(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002. In its decision, the court ruled in favor of Lego.

This case serves as a significant reference point for understanding the interplay between technical functionality and design protection within the EU's legal framework for community designs. It clarifies the conditions under which designs that are technically dictated can still enjoy protection, particularly when they are part of a modular system that allows for multiple assembly or connection of interchangeable products.

Furthermore, the decision reinforces the principle that the validity of a community design is presumed until proven otherwise, and that challenging a design's validity requires a rigorous demonstration of the lack of novelty or individual character based on specific, disclosed earlier designs.

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