EuGH · C-198/10

Subject of the case Operative part Subject of the case Re: Reference for a preliminary ruling – Corte d’appello di Milano – Interpretation of Articles 17 and 19 of Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of designs – National legislation transposing the directive into national law by introducing copyright protection for designs – Right of a Member State to extend the conditions for the grant of such protection. Operative part Operative part Article 17 of Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of designs must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State which excludes, either entirely or within the limits of prior use, from protection by the law of copyright of that Member State designs which entered the public domain before that legislation entered into force, with regard to all third parties who have previously manufactured or marketed in the national territory products based on those designs before that date.