DESIGN | The General Court on novelty inferred from a community design’s individual character

On 14 January 2026, the General Court of the European Union (GC) delivered its judgment in case T517/24 (Froneri Bulgaria EOOD v EUIPO), concerning an application to invalidate registered community design No. 4 660 454-0001, depicting a packaging box with a lid used for ice cream. The GC held that, pursuant to Article 6 of Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs (Regulation), individual character must be assessed by reference to the relevant product sector, the informed user, the designer’s degree of freedom in developing the design, and the overall impression produced on the informed user by the contested design. On that basis, the GC found that the overall impression produced by the contested design differed from that produced by the earlier designs, and therefore that individual character was present. Furthermore, the GC also clarified that the novelty requirement under Article 5 of the Regulation is less demanding than individual character and may, a fortiori, be inferred once individual character is established, for reasons of methodology and procedural economy.

Newsletter n. 115 – February 2026