BEDA & EUIPO
On Monday, 21 September 2026, the Faculty of Design hosted the BEDA & EUIPO Joint Hands-on Workshop – The Strategic Value of Design Rights: Turning Protected Design into Competitiveness and Growth.
Organised by BEDA – The Bureau of European Design Associations and the EUIPO – European Union Intellectual Property Office, the event brought together students, alumni, designers, companies, lecturers and other professionals interested in design protection, intellectual property and some of the most relevant questions shaping contemporary design practice.
The Monday morning began in a very familiar way – with traffic, the search for parking spaces, and perhaps a slight feeling that coffee would have been very welcome right at the start. But we quickly found our rhythm and settled into a warm, open and genuinely collaborative atmosphere.
The programme combined expert presentations, practical case studies and direct exchange with participants.
In the opening part of the workshop, representatives of BEDA, EUIPO and the Faculty of Design introduced the strategic value of design protection and the role intellectual property can play in strengthening competitiveness, business development and the design profession.
This was followed by the Design in Practice section, which explored the importance of design protection from a business perspective, the relationship between design, artificial intelligence and intellectual property, as well as concrete experiences from professional practice.
We were especially pleased to welcome companies whose case studies demonstrated how questions of design protection, development and implementation appear in real business environments. These practical examples added an important dimension to the workshop and showed that design protection is not merely a legal issue, but also a very concrete question of development, responsibility and the long-term value of creative work.
During the break, participants could also visit the EUIPO Registration Corner, where they received practical information about registration procedures, protection options and the tools available to designers and businesses.
The event continued with round-table discussions focusing on the protection and management of rights, artificial intelligence and authorship, as well as support available to designers and companies.
And if it had been entirely up to us, those conversations could easily have continued for much longer.
There were many questions, practical examples and different perspectives, and the discussions quickly developed into lively and useful exchanges. Nevertheless, we managed to stay remarkably close to the planned schedule.
This was also one of the main goals of the workshop: to make design protection feel less distant or complicated, and instead turn it into something we can discuss openly, ask questions about, and seek support for when needed.
We hope that every participant left with at least one new piece of information, one useful answer, or one idea that may prove valuable in a future project.
Perhaps in relation to their own product.
Perhaps in work with a client.
Perhaps when dealing with authorship and the use of artificial intelligence.
Or perhaps when someone else in their design community faces a similar question.
We also believe that the knowledge we gain becomes even more valuable when we share it and support one another within the wider design community.
At the Faculty of Design, we are very pleased and proud to have hosted an event that brought together European expertise, design practice, companies, educators and future generations of designers in one place.
Our sincere thanks go to BEDA and EUIPO for their trust and collaboration, to all speakers and contributors for sharing their knowledge and experience, to the participating companies for their practical insights, and above all to everyone who joined us, asked questions, shared experiences and helped create such a pleasant and engaging atmosphere.
It was a pleasure to host you at the Faculty of Design, and we are very grateful to everyone who helped make the day such a meaningful one.
