Insights

San Francisco – March 19, 2026: Crowell & Moring achieved a decisive victory for Kawasaki Heavy Industries in the Northern District of California, obtaining a $48 million jury verdict after a two-week trial. The jury unanimously found that Rorze Corporation and its U.S. subsidiary, Rorze Automation, Inc., willfully infringed Kawasaki’s U.S. Patent No. RE45,772.

On 28 November 2022, the European Commission adopted proposals for a revision of Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs (“Community Design Regulation”) and Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of designs (“Design Directive”). Together, these two legal instruments form the main pillars of legal protection of designs in the EU. By revising these laws, the Commission aims to modernize a legal framework which has remained in effect for more than 20 years and make the protection of industrial designs in the EU quicker, cheaper and more predictable.