Periodic patterned surfaces do not only provide unique properties, but act as intelligent surfaces capable of selectively determine various functionalities in applications, such as biomaterials, surface engineering, photonics and sensor systems. In particular, these surfaces have demonstrated control of friction and wear in both lubricated and non-lubricated conditions. In this paper, we introduce a recently developed approach for the fabrication of two and three dimensional structures using Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP). The fabricated structures range from the submicrometer to micrometer scale, and were directly fabricated on metals as well as on diamond like carbon coatings. Different examples of fabricated arrays and their applications in tribology are discussed.