The new law extends the current 25 year period that companies have to wait from an item having been put up for sale to 70 years, bringing it into line with painting and sculpture across the EU. Companies now selling replica pieces could be liable for large fines or even custodial sentences and in all probability the prices of original examples of these design classics will rocket up in price.
Below you will find five furniture design classics that now fall into this category:
The Egg Chair
The Egg chair was originally designed by Arne Jacobsen for the lobby of the SAS Radisson Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1958. It was part of a commission to design every element of the hotel from floor to ceiling and it allowed him to put his theory of 'total' integrated design into practice.
Using state of the art materials at the time with steel frame and cow-hide or upholstery and produced by Fritz Hansen it has become a classic of mid-century modern design and has been used by the likes of McDonalds and in the Big Brother House.
The Barcelona Chair
Supported on each side by two seamless flat steel bars, the single sinuous curve forms the seat's back and front legs. In the original seats for the exposition it was upholstered in white pig skin with button details but this was replaced by Bovine leather when it went into wider production for practical reasons.
The Spanish king was to attend the exposition and Rohe declared it had to be an 'important chair, a very elegant chair...The government was to receive a king...the chair had to be...monumental. In those circumstances, you just couldn't use a kitchen chair'.
PH Artichoke Light
Poul Henningsen designed the PH Artichoke pendant ceiling light in 1958 and they were originally developed for the Langelinie Pavilion restaurant in Copenhagen produced by Louis Poulsen.
A masterpiece of mid-century lighting, it is constructed of 12 steel arches and finished with 72 copper or steel leaves in twelve rows which allows the viewer to see the fixture but not the light source from any angle.
The Eames Lounge Chair
Released in 1956, the Eames lounge chair instantly became a popular classic. Designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller company, it was the first example of a chair designed by them for the high-end market.
Inspired by the traditional English club chair, but using some of the most innovative materials of the period - moulded plywood seat (originally covered with Brazilian rosewood veneer) and aluminium supports together with luxurious black leather upholstery - Charles Eames explained that it was supposed to have a 'warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman's mitt.'
It is now a uniquely recognisable design form that can be found in museums all over the world including New York's Museum of Modern Art.
The Arco Lamp
Synonymous with multitudes of loft apartments Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni's Arco Floor Lamp has been in production since its creation in 1962 and is one of the most reproduced pieces of modern design.
When interviewed in 1970 Achille Castiglioni explained the conception behind the design - "We were thinking about a lamp that shines light onto a table. They already existed, but you had to walk round them. To leave enough space around the table, the base had to be at least two meters away. Which was how the idea for Arco came into being. We wanted to make it with commercially available parts and we found that curved steel angle iron worked perfectly well. Then there was the problem of the counterweight: a heavy weight was needed to support it all. Our first thought was concrete, but then we chose marble because the same weight took up less space, and also because we could obtain a better finish for a lower cost. In Arco nothing is decorative: even the beveled corners on the base have a function, which is not to hurt us; even the hole isn’t a flight of fantasy, but to make it easier to lift the base'.