The Hungarian Court of Justice has referred several questions to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the scope of protection of Community designs that fall under the exception provided in the European legislation as the controversial pieces are objects that allow for the multiple assembly or connection of mutually interchangeable products within a modular system.

 

The dispute arose from an action for infringement of a Community design brought by Lego against Pozitív Energiaforrás for attempting to import into Hungary construction sets that included some modular plastic pieces, with a similar shape of two of Lego’s registered pieces for plastic construction sets.

After examining the case, the competent court in Hungary suspended the proceedings and referred the matter to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on whether it was consistent with EU law to rely on the impression of an informed user with expert knowledge of the sector to determine the scope of the protection at issue. It also raised the question of whether, if infringement were found in some of the pieces of the defendant’s construction sets, it would be appropriate to prohibit the importation of the construction set, since it would be a partial infringement of minor importance in relation to the goods as a whole.

The Court of Justice interprets Articles 8(3), 10 and 89(1) of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community designs and emphasises that the case is examined in the light of the original version of the Regulation, prior to its amendment  by Regulation (EU) 2024/2822. The Court of Justice rules that the degree of freedom of the author is very limited and therefore it is appropriate to take into account the overall impression produced by that design on an informed user who, without being an expert, is familiar with the varieties existing in the sector, has a certain degree of knowledge of the elements at issue and, because of his interest, pays a relatively high degree of attention when using them as elements of the modular system of which they form part. However, the impression of a user with technical knowledge similar to that which may be expected of a sectoral expert, capable of thoroughly examining the contested designs and whose impression is based on technical considerations, will not be taken into account.

On the issue of the prohibition of  the commercialization of the construction sets, the Court of Justice  concludes that when the infringement only affects certain elements of a modular system that are few in number in relation to the system’s components as a whole, there is no special reason under Article 89(1) of Regulation 6/2002 for the infringing conduct not to be sanctioned.

Judgment of the Court of Justice of 4 September 2025 in Case C-211/24