Design Protection in the Nordic Countries: The Past, the Present and maybe the Future

The Nordic countries adopted similar Designs Acts in the 1970s and these Acts remained in place until the European Union (EU)-harmonized design regime took over in the early 2000s. This chapter first describes the background to the pan-Nordic Acts and then moves on to point out how they generally failed to live up to the expectations of the legislators in providing a tailor made protection system for the ‘modern’ functional (‘Scandinavian’) designs that had emerged from the 1950s. Next, the chapter turns to the current protection in the Nordic countries under the EU regime. It is shown how designers in some of the Nordic countries have more or less abandoned the national system based on the national Design Acts and instead have turned to the EU Design Regulation. It is also argued that the national (Danish) courts are becoming better at following the guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union and are coming out of the shadows of the pan-Nordic Acts and into the harmonized EU-based design system. The final part uses the Nordic experiences to reflect on the recommendations in the recent Evaluation of EU Legislation on Design Protection.