Abstract
<jats:p>This paper examines the recent doctrine of the Court of Justice of the European Union on works of applied art through the lens of the judgment in the joined cases Mio-Konektra. It addresses three issues: originality as a precondition for copyright protection, the possibility of concurrent protection under design law, and the criteria for determining infringement. In light of the Palais Royal and USM Haller cases, it argues that originality requires an intellectual creation reflecting the author’s personality through free and creative choices, even where elements drawn from the common design repertoire are used. The main doctrinal innovation is the criterion of recognisability (or perceptibility) for establishing infringement, which represents an evolution from the Infopaq test. Finally, it considers the implications of this requirement for legal certainty and EU harmonisation, noting the absence of a clear definition of whose perspective should govern the assessment of such recognisability in the allegedly infringing object.</jats:p>