Design Registration in India

Design Registration is an Important Process to protect your Design from Get Copied. If you think that your design in unique then file Application for Design Registration. To Start the process Contact Us.

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Design Registration

Design Registration in India

Design registration is a type of intellectual property protection, under which a newly created design applied to an article created under an industrial process can be protected from counterfeiting. Under the Design Act, 2000, a shape, configuration, pattern or ornament or composition of lines or colour or combination applied to any article can be registered. For a design to be registered, it must satisfy the following conditions:

  1. it must be new and original, the design should relate to features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article,
  2. The design must be applied to any article by an industrial process and
  3. The design must be visible and should appear on an article.

Design registration provides the creator, exclusive rights over use of the design for a period of ten years, that can be further extended for a period of five years. In case of infringement, the owner of a registered design can seek legal remedy under the Design Act.

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Difference Between Trademark and Design Registration

  • A design registration protects any new and innovative ornamental design of an article of manufacture. A trademark registration protects a word or words, name, symbol or drawing that is utilized in commerce to distinguish one source of goods or services from that of another.
  • Put another way; a design registration would enable the protection of the physical appearance of a distinctive product you are planning to sell to the public (so long as that appearance does not affect the product’s function in any way). A trademark would defend the symbols or words you use to identify the product as coming from your specific business. In certain conditions, both forms of protection may be accessible to cover a single design, providing potential rewards for the owner of these rights.

Designs that can be Registered

For a design to be registered under the Designs Act, it must satisfy the following six conditions:

  1. The design should be new or original, not previously published or used in any country before the date of application for registration.
  2. The design should relate to features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation applied or applicable to an article. Thus, designs of industrial plans, layouts and installations are not registrable under the Act.
  3. The design should be applied or applicable to any article by any industrial process. Normally, designs of artistic nature like painting, sculptures and the like which are not produced in bulk by any industrial process are excluded from registration under the Act.
  4. The features of the design in the finished article should appeal to and are judged solely by the eye. This implies that the design must appear and should be visible on the finished article, for which it is meant. Thus, any design in the inside arrangement of a box, money purse or almirah may not be considered for showing such articles in the open state, as those articles are generally put in the market in the closed state.
  5. Any mode or principle of construction or operation or any thing which is in substance a mere mechanical device, would not be registrable design.
  6. The design should not include any Trademark or Copyright.

Items that Cannot be Registered as a Design

The following items cannot be registered as a design:

  1. Books, jackets, calendars, certificates, forms-and other documents, dressmaking patterns, greeting cards, leaflets, maps and plan cards, postcards, stamps, medals.
  2. Labels, tokens, cards, cartoons. any principle or mode of construction of an article.
  3. Mere mechanical contrivance.
  4. Buildings and structures.
  5. Parts of articles not manufactured and sold separately.
  6. Variations commonly used in the trade.
  7. Mere workshop alterations of components of an assembly.
  8. Mere change in size of article.
  9. Flags, emblems or signs of any country.
  10. Layout designs of integrated circuits.

Benefits of Design Registration

All documents pertaining to a registered design are maintained by the Patent Office to put competitors on notice about registration of a design. A registered design provides the creator, exclusive rights over use of the design for a period of ten years, that can be further extended for a period of five years.

In case of infringement or piracy of a registered design, the owner of the registered design can seek legal remedy under the Designs Act. Anyone found contravening to the copyright in a design, is liable for every offence to pay a sum not exceeding Rs. 25,000/- to the registered proprietor subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000/- recoverable as contract debt in respect of any one design. Thus, registering a design provides legal remedy against infringement.

Design Registration Fee

Documents Required for Design Registration

  1. A certified copy of the original or certified copies of extracts from disclaimers
  2. Affidavits
  3. Declarations and
  4. Other public documents can be made available on payment of a fee.
  5. The affidavits should be in paragraph form and should contain a declaration of truth and verifiability. The costs involved in the design registration process may be regulated by the Controller according to the Fourth Schedule.

Design Registration Process

Registered design is a shape, configuration, pattern or ornament or composition of lines or color or combination thereof applied to any article whether two dimensional or three dimensional protected under the Designs Act, 2000. Design registration is similar to copyright registration, patent or trademark registration and a type of intellectual property registration – which protects creations of the mind.

An application for the registration of design should be submitted along with four specimen copies of the design. A statement of novelty should also be submitted, which refers to a statement of how the design is unique. The design so represented in the ‘representation of the design’ submitted should be precisely similar to the design or exact copies of the design.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

‘Design’ means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament or composition of lines or colour or combination thereof applied to any article whether two dimensional or three dimensional or in both forms, by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not include any mode or principle or construction or anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device, and does not include any trade mark, as define in clause (v) of sub-section of Section 2 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958, property mark or artistic works as defined under Section 2(c) of the Copyright Act, 1957.

 

Under the Designs Act, 2000 the “article” means any article of manufacture and any substance, artificial, or partly artificial and partly natural; and includes any part of an article capable of being made and sold separately.

Object of the Designs Act is to protect new or original designs so created to be applied or applicable to particular article to be manufactured by Industrial Process or means. Sometimes purchase of articles for use is influenced not only by their practical efficiency but also by their appearance. The important purpose of design Registration is to see that the artisan, creator, originator of a design having aesthetic look is not deprived of his bonafide reward by others applying it to their goods.

 

No. Because once the alleged Design i.e., ornamentation is removed only a piece of paper, metal or like material remains and the article referred ceases to exist. Article must have its existence independent of the Designs applied to it. [Design with respect to label was held not registrable, by an Order on civil original case No. 9-D of 1963, Punjab, High Court]. So, the Design as applied to an article should be integral with the article itself.

 

When an application for registration of a Design is in order, it is accepted and registered and then a certificate of registration is issued to the applicant. However, a separate request should be made to the Controller for obtaining a certified copy of the certificate for legal proceeding with requisite fee.

The registration of a design confers upon the registered proprietor ‘Copyright’ in the design for the period of registration. ‘Copyright’ means the exclusive right to apply a design to the article belonging to the class in which it is registered.

 

The duration of the registration of a design is initially ten years from the date of registration, but in cases where claim to priority has been allowed the duration is ten years from the priority date. This initial period of registration may be extended by further period of 5 years on an application made in Form-3 accompanied by prescribed fees to the Controller before the expiry of the said initial period of ten years. The proprietor of a design may make application for such extension even as soon as the design is registered.

 

No. A registered design, the copyright of which has expired cannot be re-registered.

 

Piracy of a design means the application of a design or its imitation to any article belonging to class of articles in which the design has been registered for the purpose of sale or importation of such articles without the written consent of the registered proprietor. Publishing such articles or exposing terms for sale with knowledge of the unauthorized application of the design to them also involves piracy of the design.

 

If anyone contravenes the copyright in a design he is liable for every offence to pay a sum not exceeding Rs. 25,000/- to the registered proprietor subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000/- recoverable as contract debt in respect of any one design. The registered proprietor may bring a suit for the recovery of the damages for any such contravention and for injunction against repetition of the same. Total sum recoverable shall not exceed Rs. 50,000/-as contract debt as stated in Section 22(2)(a). The suit for infringement, recovery of damage etc should not be filed in any court below the court of District Judge.

 

Yes, it would be always advantageous to the registered proprietors to mark the article so as to indicate the number of the registered design except in the case of Textile designs. Otherwise, the registered proprietor would not be entitled to claim damages from any infringer unless the registered proprietor establishes that the registered proprietor took all proper steps to ensure the marking of the article, or unless the registered proprietor show that the infringement took place after the person guilty thereof knew or had received notice of the existence of the copyright in the design.

First-to-file rule is applicable for registrability of design. If two or more applications relating to an identical or a similar design are filed on different dates only first application will be considered for registration of design.