Registration of designs, rights conferred, and the powers and duties of the Controller

1. Procedure for registration

• Who applies. Any person claiming to be the proprietor of a new or original design not previously published in any country and not contrary to public order or morality (section 5(1)). Section 2(j) defines the proprietor: the author; or, where the author executes the work for another person for good consideration, that person; or one who has acquired the design or the right to apply it.
• Application in the prescribed form, with representations of the design, the name of the article, the class, a statement of novelty and the fee, filed at the patent office (section 5(2)). Design applications are handled by the Patent Office at Kolkata.
• Class. A design may be registered in only one class; the Controller decides doubts as to class, and his decision is final (sections 5(3) and 6(2)).
• Examination. Before registration the Controller refers the application to an examiner on whether the design is registrable, and considers the report (proviso to section 5(1)). Objections are communicated to the applicant, who may reply and be heard (section 33).
• Refusal or abandonment. The Controller may refuse registration (section 5(4)) on the grounds in section 4 or under section 35 (public order or morality), with appeal to the High Court. An application not completed within the prescribed time through the applicant’s default is deemed abandoned (section 5(5)).
• Registration takes effect from the date of application (section 5(6)), or the foreign date where convention priority is claimed within six months (section 44).
• Publication of the particulars in the Patent Office Journal, after which the design is open to public inspection (section 7).
• Certificate of registration to the proprietor (section 9), and entry in the register of designs kept at the patent office, which is prima facie evidence of its contents (section 10).

2. Rights conferred by registration

• Copyright in the design for ten years from the date of registration, extendable by five years on an application and fee before expiry (section 11). The maximum is therefore fifteen years.
• Exclusive right to apply the design to articles of the registered class, and to stop others from applying it or any fraudulent or obvious imitation, importing such articles for sale, or knowingly selling them (section 22).
• Remedies for piracy: a fixed sum recoverable as a contract debt, or damages and injunction (section 22(2)).
• Assignment and licence. The design can be assigned, transmitted or licensed; the person who becomes entitled applies to the Controller to register his title (section 30). An assignment, mortgage or licence is valid only if it is in writing in an instrument containing all its terms and the application to register it is filed within six months of execution (extendable by up to six months); once registered, it takes effect from the date of execution (section 30(3)).
• Against the Government: the registered design binds the Government as it binds any person (section 20).
• Protection of confidential disclosure: disclosure in good faith, disclosure in breach of good faith, and acceptance of a first confidential order for a textile design do not invalidate the copyright (section 16).

Conditions. Before delivery on sale of articles bearing the design, the proprietor must mark each article with the prescribed mark or words showing that the design is registered; otherwise he cannot recover damages from an infringer who did not know of the registration (section 15). Anyone may inspect a registered design and obtain a certified copy, and may ask the Controller whether copyright still exists (sections 17 and 18).

3. Restoration of lapsed designs: sections 12 to 14

If the design lapses because the extension fee was not paid, the proprietor may apply for restoration within one year of the lapse, stating why the fee was not paid. If the Controller is satisfied that the failure was unintentional and there was no undue delay, he restores the registration on payment of the fees. The restored rights are subject to conditions the Controller may impose to protect or compensate persons who began to use the design between the lapse and the restoration, and no suit lies for piracy committed in that interval (section 14).

4. Cancellation: section 19

Any person interested may petition the Controller at any time after registration to cancel it on the grounds that:

• the design has been previously registered in India;
• it was published in India or any other country before the date of registration;
• it is not new or original;
• it is not registrable under the Act; or
• it is not a design as defined in section 2(d).

An appeal lies to the High Court, and the Controller may refer the petition to the High Court. The same grounds are available as a defence in a suit for piracy (section 22(3)).

5. Powers and duties of the Controller

The Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks is the Controller of Designs (section 3(1)). The Central Government may appoint examiners and other officers, who act under his superintendence and may be authorised to discharge his functions; he may withdraw a matter from one officer and deal with it himself or transfer it (section 3(2) to (4)).

Powers relating to registration:

• to register designs, after referring the application to an examiner (section 5(1));
• to decide the class of articles (sections 5(3) and 6(2));
• to refuse registration (section 5(4)), and to refuse a design contrary to public order or morality (section 35);
• to direct that an application proceed in the name of an assignee or claimant, or of surviving joint applicants, and to resolve disputes between joint applicants (section 8);
• to grant certificates and duplicates (section 9);
• to extend the term (section 11(2)) and restore lapsed designs (sections 12 and 13).

Quasi-judicial powers:

• to cancel registration on petition (section 19), or refer it to the High Court;
• to rectify the register on the application of an aggrieved person (section 31);
• the powers of a civil court for receiving evidence, administering oaths, enforcing attendance of witnesses, compelling discovery and production of documents, issuing commissions and awarding costs, which are executable as a decree (section 32);
• to take evidence on affidavit, with power to take oral evidence or allow cross-examination (section 37); and
• to correct clerical errors in the register, applications and documents (section 29).

Duties:

• to keep the register of designs and record assignments and transmissions (sections 10 and 30), and keep it open to public inspection with certified copies (section 26);
• to publish particulars of registered designs (section 7) and allow inspection (section 17);
• to inform any person whether copyright in a design subsists (section 18);
• to hear the applicant before exercising any discretionary power adversely to him (section 33);
• not to enter any notice of trust in the register (section 25);
• to keep reports confidential, other than the annual report (section 27);
• to seek directions of the Central Government in cases of doubt or difficulty (section 34); and
• to withhold information prejudicial to the security of India (section 46).

The Central Government lays the Controller’s annual report before Parliament (section 45). Appeals against the Controller’s orders lie to the High Court within three months, and its decision is final (section 36).

How this is examined

January 2026 and February 2025 both set “the powers and duties (functions) of the controller” as a 10-mark essay, and June 2025 set “Write a note on controller of designs”. Organise the answer as in section 5 above, with section numbers. February 2025’s short note “Rights conferred by registration of designs” is section 2. “Procedure for registration” and “copyright in registered designs” are syllabus items answered from sections 1 and 2.