The EU's highest court has ruled that copyright
protection can apply to a product whose shape is functional and
original. With private vehicle purchases at an all-time low, the
CJEU's ruling in Brompton Bicycle Ltd v Chedech/Get2Get may be
exactly what the manufacturing and automotive industries want to
hear.
The decision clarifies the extent to which so-called
culmination, or overlap, of intellectual property rights is
possible under EU law. The recent case of Cofefel
confirmed that products could benefit from both design and
copyright protection in certain situations and clarified that only
originality is required. Brompton now confirms that
copyright can subsist in functional objects where the author is
free to make some creative choices, akin to the law for Registered
and Unregistered designs in the EU. Due to the longer term of
copyright, this may be seen as good news for designers in the
manufacturing industry and beyond as it may be possible to
