Art. 17 CDD : Relationship with copyright
2 preliminary rulings
Order of 9 Sep 2011, C-198/10 (Cassina) 
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 either excludes, either completely or within the limits of prior use, from protection by the law of copyright of that Member State designs which have entered the public domain before the entry into force of that legislation, with regard to all third parties who have previously manufactured or marketed in the national territory products based on those designs before that date.
Judgment of 27 Jan 2011, C-168/09 (Flos)
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 from copyright protection in that Member State designs which were protected by a design right registered in or in respect of a Member State and which entered the public domain before the date of entry into force of that legislation, although they meet all the requirements to be eligible for copyright protection.
Article 17 of Directive 98/71 must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State which – either for a substantial period of 10 years or completely – excludes from copyright protection designs which, although they meet all the requirements to be eligible for copyright protection, entered the public domain before the date of entry into force of that legislation, that being the case with regard to any third party who has manufactured or marketed products based on such designs in that State – irrespective of the date on which those acts were performed.
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