- The 2024 awards will be held in Riga in collaboration with the Latvian IP office
- The call for applications and nominations is now open, and the award categories aim to recognise outstanding industrial designs and their designers
- A new ‘Next Generation Design Award’ category will recognise up-and-coming designers up to 29 years old
- The 2024 edition marks the DesignEuropa Awards as an annual event; previously, it took place every two years
- Nearly 88,000 designs have been filed in 2023 – China, Germany, Italy, the United States and France lead the way in number of filings at the EUIPO
Entries are now open for the 2024 DesignEuropa Awards, which will become an annual event for the international design community starting next year.
Previous award winners include world-renowned designers Maria Benktzon, Hartmut Esslinger, Giorgetto Giugiaro and André Ricard, who all received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards have also honoured innovative designs from companies such as Philips, Siemens, Smeg and Thule.
“Europe is synonymous with world-class design – from our historical roots to today, we see design embedded throughout our culture and economy,” said the Executive Director of the EUIPO, João Negrão. “The DesignEuropa Awards celebrates and showcases the value of innovative, functional design in Europe.”
“Drawing on the success of the awards that until now have taken place every two years, the 2024 edition solidifies the occasion as an annual event for the international design community. Next year’s event will also have a strong focus on young and up-and-coming designers,” Mr Negrão continued.
“We are honoured and excited to host the DesignEuropa Awards in our great capital. The initiative highlights our strong cooperation with the EUIPO and Latvia’s dedication to protecting and recognising IP rights. Also, this is a great opportunity for Latvian designers and entrepreneurs to present themselves, our national identity and uniqueness internationally,” said Agris Batalauskis, Director of the Latvian Patent Office, which will collaborate with the EUIPO on the awards as the host country.
The DesignEuropa Awards, now in their fifth edition, are organised by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to give recognition to products and designers in the field of industrial design.
The awards pay tribute to designs that are protected as registered Community designs. Managed by the EUIPO, the registered Community design is an intellectual property right that grants exclusive protection to the appearance of a product throughout all EU Member States. Among registered designs are famous ones such as the Bialetti Moka pot, the Lego brick and the Porsche Turbo – as well as day-to-day products created by small companies or start-ups.
Recognising design legacies
The DesignEuropa Awards Lifetime Achievement Award is meant to recognise the most influential industrial designers of our time.
Last year, Maria Benktzon became the first woman to receive the award. One of her most recognised projects is the drip-free coffee pot designed for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). According to the awards jury, her work demonstrated “an exceptional and well-recognised ability to design inclusive, ergonomic, easy-to-use products with strong aesthetic quality.”
Other recipients of the prestigious award include André Ricard, designer of the Olympic torch of Barcelona 1992 and numerous other designs that are part of our daily lives; Giorgetto Giugiaro, known for his iconic car designs; and Hartmut Esslinger, who is behind the famous designs that have characterised the Apple brand.
How to apply
The application period for the awards will close on 15 March 2024. The competition is open to any person, entity or institution of any nationality that owns a valid registered Community design.
The Design Europa Awards categories open for applications and nominations are:
- The Industry Award: For designs from large and medium-sized businesses.
- The Entrepreneurs and Small Companies Award: Aimed at designs from individuals or small companies who have an idea and act on it, usually to disrupt the current market with a new product or service.
- The Next Generation Design Award: A new category to recognise young design talent. Eligible candidates must be young designers up to 29 years old. They can apply with one or more of their designs registered in the Community Design System.
- The Lifetime Achievement Award: Reserved for designers with a significant body of work, developed over the course of a career, who have made a considerable impact in the field of design.
A jury composed of renowned experts in the fields of design, business and intellectual property will assess all applications.
Full details on how to apply or nominate are available on the DesignEuropa Awards website.
Why design protection matters
Design is a vital engine of economic growth and job creation. According to a 2022 report, design-intensive industries generate 26.8 million direct jobs in the EU and make up 16 % of the EU’s total GDP. In addition, salaries in these sectors are 34 % higher than in sectors that do not register their designs.
The EUIPO receives around 100,000 designs every year, accounting for 1.7 million designs in total since 2003, when it began managing this intellectual property right.
China, Germany, Italy, the United States and France make up the leading five countries in terms of protecting designs at the EUIPO so far in 2023. As of the end of November this year, the EUIPO has received nearly 88,000 registered Community Design applications. Overall, 65 % of applications have come from filers based in the EU.
Top 10 countries in Registered Community Design filings in 2023. Source: EUIPO
The SME Fund and IP protection in Latvia
In 2021, the European Commission launched the fund for SMEs implemented by the EUIPO and strengthened by national and regional IP Offices, including the Latvian Patent Office. The Fund offers a reduction of up to 75% of the cost of registering trade marks, designs and patents. To date, more than 60,000 SMEs have already benefited from the programme, and the EUIPO has received 35,000 applications in 2023 alone.
When it comes to assessing and leveraging IP rights, Latvia is in the top five countries in the EU for Voucher 1 of the programme, requesting IP scans. The scans allow companies to consult an IP expert to examine their business models, products or services and growth plans to determine the most appropriate IP strategy for their businesses.
About the DesignEuropa Awards
The DesignEuropa Awards have become a major event in the international design calendar. They acknowledge outstanding designs and industry pioneers who have registered their ideas and products as registered Community designs.
The DesignEuropa Awards are now in their fifth edition, following the first Award ceremony which took place in Milan, Italy in 2016; Warsaw, Poland in 2018; Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 2021; and Berlin, Germany in 2023.
The DesignEuropa Awards 2024 will take place in Riga, Latvia, in collaboration with the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia.
About the EUIPO
The EUIPO is one of the largest decentralised agencies of the EU, based in Alicante, Spain. Ranked as the most innovative intellectual property office in the world in 2021, the EUIPO manages the registration of the European Union trade mark (EUTM) and the registered Community design (RCD), both of which provide intellectual property protection in all EU Member States. It also carries out cooperation activities with the national and regional intellectual property offices of the EU and hosts the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights.
Media contact:
EUIPO Communication Service
Tel.: +34 653 674 113