In order to comply with the requirements of the EU's Directive on Harmonization of Design Laws (see our March 1999 Newsletter), the maximum term of design protection in France has been reduced from fifty to twenty-five years, the initial term being five years with the possibility of renewal every five years up to the twenty-five year maximum. Designs that were registered under the previous law for an initial period of twenty-five years will now expire at the end of that twenty-five year period and there will no longer be any possibility of renewing them for a further twenty-five years as was possible previously. Any design registration that was effected under the previous law and renewed for its second twenty-five year term prior to October 1, 2001 will, however, continue to have a fifty-year term.