New rules of the game in copyright protection for designs: What did the Court of Justice change in the Mio and konektra cases?
14.05.2026
intellectual property
On 4 December 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its judgment in the joined cases C-580/23 (Mio AB v Galleri Mikael & Thomas Asplund AB) and C-795/23 (USM U. Schärer Söhne AG v konektra GmbH). Following the judgments in C-683/17, Cofemel, and C-833/18, Brompton Bicycle, this is another major step in shaping a uniform standard across the EU for copyright protection of designs. The court clarified the methodology for assessing the originality of utilititarian objects, and also sought to resolve the relationship between protection of industrial designs and copyright protection, and to clarify the rules for evaluating infringement of copyrights to designs.
