EU design registration
An EU design registration costs €830 all in for one design, including the €350 EUIPO fee. It covers all 27 member states and protects the appearance of a product rather than its name or its function.
What it costs
| EUIPO fee | Our fee | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 design | €350 | €480 | €830 |
| Designs 2 to 10, each | €125 | quoted | |
| Designs 11 and above, each | €50 | quoted | |
| Deferred publication, first design | €40 | ||
| Prior design search with opinion | €400 |
Since the EU design reform of 1 May 2025 the official fee is a single amount covering registration and publication, replacing the two separate fees that existed before.
Filing several designs in one application is much cheaper per design, which matters if you have a product range or several variants of the same item.
What qualifies
The design must be new and have individual character. New means no identical design has been made available to the public. Individual character means it produces a different overall impression on an informed user than what already exists.
Registrable: furniture, packaging, jewellery, textiles, tools, toys, footwear, vehicle parts, graphic user interfaces, icons, typefaces.
Not registrable: features dictated solely by technical function, and features that must be reproduced exactly to connect to another product so it can perform its function.
The 12-month grace period
You have twelve months from first public disclosure to file. Within that window your own disclosure does not destroy the novelty of your own design.
This exists so you can test the market before committing to a filing. It also means a product launched more than twelve months ago cannot be registered, because your own launch is now prior art against you.
If you launched recently, file now. The date of first disclosure is the one that matters, not the date you decided to protect it.
How long it takes
Two to four weeks, which is much faster than a trademark. EUIPO does not examine designs for novelty or individual character. It checks that the application is formally correct and that the design is not contrary to public policy, then registers it.
Nobody checks whether your design is actually new. That question only gets asked if somebody later applies to invalidate the registration, which is why a prior design search before filing is worth the €400.
How long protection lasts
Five years from the filing date, renewable in five-year blocks up to 25 years. Renewal fees increase at each renewal.
Deferred publication
You can ask EUIPO to keep the design unpublished for up to 30 months from filing, for €40 for the first design. This is useful when the product has not launched and you do not want competitors seeing it on the register.
Unregistered design right
An unregistered EU design right arises automatically on first disclosure in the EU and lasts three years. It only protects against deliberate copying, and you have to prove the copying happened.
A registration protects against any design giving the same overall impression, whether copied or independently created, and you do not have to prove anything about the other side's state of mind. It is a much stronger right.
EU funding covers 75%
The EUIPO SME Fund reimburses 75% of the official fee for EU SMEs, taking a single design to about €570. The voucher has to be granted before you file.