In Estonia, protection of industrial designs can be applied for on the grounds of the Industrial Design Protection Act that entered into force on 11 January 1998. As of 1 May 2004, legal acts regulating the legal protection of Community designs are also applicable in Estonia, including Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001, which governs the protection of Community designs.
Under this regulation, all industrial designs disclosed on the territory of the European Union automatically have three years of protection against copying, in addition to the usual option of registration.
Estonia acceded to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs on 23 December 2003. As of 1 April 2004, the Common Regulations for the implementation of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs are in force. In order to protect an industrial design via the Hague system, an application in English or French must be filed with the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva, designating the countries where protection is sought.
In Estonia, industrial designs are registered by a request or registration system, which means that the Patent Office does not examine the industrial design for the novelty, individual character and industrial application thereof, or the right of a person to file the registration application.
In 2024, the Patent Office received 20 industrial design applications, which is slightly more than last year, in 2023 (17 applications). Only one of the applicants was not an Estonian person; the applicant was from China.
The number of applications filed directly with the European Union Intellectual Property Office is showing a growing trend. Applicants of Estonian origin filed 198 applications to the European Union Intellectual Property Office in 2024 (172 applications in 2023 and 162 applications in 2022). One of the reasons for this may be the increase in awareness among entrepreneurs. Namely, the applications protected in this manner are subject to legal protection throughout the territory of the European Union, including in Estonia. The SME Fund also plays an important role. The SME Fund is a joint fund of the European Commission and EUIPO, which offers financial support to Estonian companies, among others, for the protection of their intellectual property.
As can be seen from the above, Estonian applicants filed more national industrial design applications and applications filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office in 2024 than in the year before. The increase in the number of applications is small, but we hope that it will remain on the same course and that with an increasingly aware entrepreneurship community, the growth trend will continue in the coming years. The total number of applications in 2024 was 218, with 189 applications filed in 2023.
The number of applications for international registration of industrial designs filed under the Hague Agreement also increased in 2024 – Estonia was mentioned 22 times (16 times in 2023), but this remains far from the record set in 2017, when protection was requested in Estonia on 88 occasions. The most registrations were filed from France (9, ie approximately 41%). Estonian applicants did not submit any applications through this system in 2023. Protection was requested most often (on 10 occasions) in the group of ‘transport and lifting equipment’.
By the end of 2024, 4 national applications and 14 international registrations remained pending. As of 31 December 2024, there were 271 valid industrial design registrations in the Estonian industrial design register (317 valid registrations in 2023) and 451 international industrial design registrations that have been granted legal protection in Estonia (445 valid registrations in 2023). The fluctuation in the number of valid registrations can be explained by the fact that the duration of design protection is not indefinite (as is the case with trade marks) and, on the other hand, by the fact that after the first or second protection period (one period lasts five years), people do not see the need to extend the protection.
Those who wish to know more about which industrial designs have been registered in Estonia and which ones are valid and which not, can use the industrial design database found on the website of the Patent Office.
Industrial designs are protected significantly less frequently than trade marks, for example. This probably still partly arises from the lack of knowledge of potential applicants in the field, which the Patent Office, in cooperation with partners, is trying to gradually improve through webinars, social media and other measures. However, we are pleased to note that the interest in industrial design protection is greater than the numbers might indicate – there are more of those asking for advice by phone or email, although we would be happy if their number was even higher.
On 8 December 2024, Directive 2024/2823 of the European Parliament and of the Council entered into force, replacing the first Design Directive adopted more than 20 years ago. On the same date, the new Design Regulation No. 2024/2822, updating the design regulation at the European Union level, also entered into force. Member states have been granted up to 36 months from the date of entry into force of the piece of legislation to implement the directive, ie the national law must be brought into line with the directive by 9 December 2027 at the latest. The regulation entered into force on 8 December 2024, however, all the amendments made will not become applicable at once, but in two phases. Article 3 of Annex I to the Design Regulation provides that the first phase of amendments will come into effect on 1 May 2025. The norms, which require supplementation and specification by means of implementing and delegated acts, will come into effect from 1 July 2026.
The Design Directive and Regulation modernise and expand the definitions of design and product, allowing for the protection of virtual creations as an innovation and simplify the legal protection procedure for designs, as well as the requirements for submitting an application. In Estonia, it will become possible to submit multiple applications, which allow to protect multiple designs by a single application. A so-called ‘repair clause’ will also be implemented, which simplifies the production and distribution of spare parts. The possibilities for protecting the rights of proprietors of design have also been enhanced.
The Patent Office also participated in a diplomatic conference held in Saudi Arabia from 11 to 22 November last year, where the Riyadh Design Law Treaty was signed. The treaty harmonises the requirements for design applications globally and also improves the opportunities for Estonian designers to protect their intellectual property internationally.
Therefore, the coming years promise to be full of changes in the field of design and we hope that with the support of those changes, more and more entrepreneurs will be able to protect their industrial designs.
Liina Puu and Karol Rummi contributed to the article by providing valuable observations.
