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When your product's design is being copied anywhere in the EU, you have several enforcement tools available — from a cease and desist letter through to EU-wide customs seizures and injunctions from a single national court. Our team at Brealant builds the right enforcement strategy for your situation.
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What Counts as EU Design Infringement
Under Community Design Regulation 6/2002, infringement occurs when a third party makes, offers, imports, or uses a product incorporating a design that doesn't produce a different overall impression from your registered design, without your consent.
Purpose and Function of Enforcement
Because a Registered Community Design has unitary effect and is enforceable immediately upon registration, enforcement tools can act across the whole EU — a single customs recordal or court judgment can have EU-wide reach.
Choosing the Right Tool
The right response depends on where the copying is happening, how serious it is, and how quickly it needs to stop — from a letter, to a customs application, to litigation.
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Contact
Reach out to Brealant with details of the copying you've identified, wherever in the EU it's occurring.
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Search
We assess your design rights, gather evidence, and identify the most effective enforcement route.
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Quote
Receive a staged service quote covering the enforcement options available to you.
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Pay
Proceed with secure payment for the option, or combination of options, you choose.
File
Brealant sends cease and desist correspondence, lodges a customs recordal application, or initiates proceedings, as appropriate.
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Wait
We monitor the process, whether that's a response deadline, a customs review, or a court timetable.
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Response
You receive the outcome, and our recommendation for any further steps needed.
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In the European Union, enforcement typically starts with the fastest, least costly option — a cease and desist letter, backed by rights enforceable from registration — and escalates only as needed to a customs recordal covering all member state borders, an online platform takedown, or litigation before a national EU design court that can grant relief across the whole Union.
Design copying left unaddressed tends to spread quickly, particularly online and across borders within the EU's single market. Brealant helps you respond proportionately and quickly, using the combination of tools most likely to stop the copying with the least cost and delay.
Enforcement tools are powerful, but each has real limits
No Guaranteed Compliance
A letter or notice can be ignored or disputed, requiring escalation.
Customs Scope
Customs recordal helps at the EU's external borders; it doesn't address copying already occurring within a member state's domestic market.
Platform-Specific Takedowns
An online takedown only removes content from the platform it's submitted to.
Validity Can Be Challenged
Enforcement action can prompt the other party to file an invalidity action against your design.
Cost and Time of Litigation
Court proceedings, while capable of EU-wide relief, can be lengthier and costlier than other tools.
Brealant gives you a realistic view of what each tool can, and can't, achieve before you commit.
A well-run enforcement strategy protects several commercial interests at once
Your Exclusive Rights
Your legal entitlement to control the appearance of your product across every EU member state.
Your Supply Chain
EU customs recordal helps intercept counterfeit or copycat goods entering the Union at any border point.
Your Online Presence
Coordinated takedown action removes copycat listings from marketplaces reaching EU consumers.
Your Market Position
Court action, where needed, can secure an EU-wide injunction from a single national design court.
Brealant helps you combine these tools into one coherent strategy rather than reacting piecemeal.
Timelines vary significantly by tool
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Assessment
Brealant reviews your rights and the copying to recommend the right route, typically within a few business days.
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Fast-Track Action
Cease and desist letters and takedown notices can often be sent within days of instruction.
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Customs Recordal
An EU customs application, once approved, remains active for up to a year and is renewable.
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Litigation (If Needed)
Court proceedings before a national EU design court, where required, generally run over many months to a couple of years.
Most matters resolve at the letter or takedown stage within weeks; customs recordal and litigation are longer-term tools for ongoing or serious copying.
Costs scale with the tool and the scope of the infringement
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Cease and desist letters and platform takedown notices are typically offered as fixed-fee services.
EU customs applications and, where necessary, court proceedings are quoted separately, reflecting the greater scope and complexity involved.
Brealant gives you a realistic view of what each tool can, and can't, achieve before you commit.
Brealant offers ongoing monitoring and enforcement support, so new instances of copying across the EU are identified and addressed quickly, protecting the value of your registration over the long term.
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A letter addresses a specific copier directly; a customs recordal asks EU customs authorities to intercept suspected infringing goods at any external EU border, without needing to identify the infringer in advance.
Yes — certain national courts sit as EU design courts and can grant injunctions with effect across all member states, based on a single Registered Community Design.
Most matters start with a proportionate step like a letter or takedown notice, reserving litigation for serious, repeated, or high-value copying.
Yes, we prepare and file takedown notices with major marketplaces and platforms operating in the EU, alongside other enforcement tools.
Costs depend on the tool used — letters and takedown notices are fixed-fee, while customs recordal and litigation are quoted based on scope; we'll recommend the most cost-effective route first.
A customs recordal is typically valid for one year and renewable; Brealant quotes the preparation fee upfront, and there's no EUIPO fee since recordals are filed directly with customs authorities.
Beyond an injunction stopping the copying, courts can award damages, order recall or destruction of infringing products, and require the infringer to cover legal costs, depending on the member state's procedure.
Yes, Brealant works with trusted local counsel in the relevant member state to handle litigation while managing the overall case centrally on your behalf.
Your registration certificate, evidence of the copying such as product samples, listings, or packaging, and a side-by-side comparison showing the same overall impression on an informed user all help build the case.
In cases amounting to counterfeiting, several member states provide for criminal prosecution alongside civil remedies — Brealant can advise when this route applies.
Discover more insights and stay informed about the latest in intellectual property with Brealant's blog. From expert advice on trademark registration and patent protection to strategies for safeguarding your brand in a competitive market, our resources are here to empower your business. .
Explore our blog to learn how effective IP management can strengthen your brand's position and protect your innovations
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