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EU Design Act: Designing the Future - Why the EU Design Act matters for food and beverages
22 April 2026
The EU Design Act (effective 1 May 2025 with further reforms effective 1 July 2026) has been introduced to strengthen, simplify, and harmonize existing design protection, which will modernize the EU design system and align with EU trademark rules. This new reform will offer design protection that is fit for the era of digital designs and evolving technologies.
But what changes does the reform bring to your business? We address this question in a series of sector-specific articles featured in our "Designing the Future" series. The series started with the video games sector, followed by fashion and furniture, automotive and mobility, medical devices, and consumer electronic goods. In this article, we examine the implications of the reform for food and beverages.
The changes in EU design law go far beyond administrative tweaks – the reform clearly opens the door to protect the essential features that shape consumer experience and brand identity in the field of food and beverages, offering stronger tools against copycats and lookalikes.
For the sector of food and beverages, the real breakthrough lies in the broader definitions of design and product, the strengthened enforcement tools, and the clarification of what qualifies for protection – including many elements central to modern brands.
Chapter 1
What's new: What can be protected and how?
a) Broadened definition of “design” and “product”
The EU Design Act significantly broadens what qualifies as a “design” and “product” extending protection beyond static forms to include dynamic, animated, and digitally rendered elements, as well as nonphysical goods, including:
- Animations, transitions, movement‑based effect.
- Light‑based or interactive digital visual features.
- Digital representations in photos, videos, and 3D models.
- Digital items and nontangible assets.
- Spatial arrangements such as merchandising, store decorations, and window displays - including virtual ones.
b) Smarter protection for food and beverage product lines
The EU Design Act’s simplified registration system - allowing up to 50 designs in a single multiclass application - offers companies in the food and beverage sector a faster, more cost efficient way to protect entire product lines and related merchandising and other elements shaping the customer experience, while the introduction of the Ⓓ symbol gives brands a clearer and more immediate way to signal design protection on both physical items and digital assets, strengthening deterrence against imitation in an industry where speed and visibility are crucial.
- Protect all elements relating to new product lines at once – including related merchan-dising and elements shaping the customer experience such as store decorations etc. – thanks to multiclass, multidesign filings.
- Signal protection instantly with the new Ⓓ symbol, helping deter copycats.
- Faster and smarter registration empowers brands to safeguard seasonal launches without slowing creative cycle.
Chapter 2
Why it matters for you
It gives food and beverage brands broader, modern protection across physical, digital, and spatial designs, along with stronger tools against copying - from lookalikes and imitations to virtual replicas and unauthorized use of signature patterns, shapes, and atmospheres.
Chapter 3
How to protect these new designs
The technical standards for representing dynamic and animated designs will be finalized by 1 July 2026.
Article 26 of the EU Design Directive already allows for static, dynamic, or animated representations using generally available technologies: drawings, photos, videos, or computer models. Further formats will be added and video formats (e.g., MP4) are expected to play a central role.
Chapter 4
What we recommend
The reform provides an opportunity to refine your design protection strategy and fully utilize the new options to legally secure the features that shape consumer experience and brand identity in the field of food and beverages.
We recommend that you
- Educate teams: Brief design, digital, marketing and merchandising teams.
- Audit assets: Map physical, digital, spatial, and animated elements (keeping in mind the novelty requirement).
- Strategize: Combine physical and digital portfolios.
- Monitor developments: Track the July 2026 technical rules and further category expansions.
- File early: Begin submitting design applications for key features that define the look and feel of your collections.
- Signal protected design status: Consider using the new registration symbol Ⓓ to raise awareness and deter infringers.
We are happy to assist you!
Authored by Constanze Schulte and Emily Sharkey.
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