The Designs Act, 2000: Salient Features

1. Background

Designs were protected in India by the Patents and Designs Act, 1911. The Designs Act, 2000 (in force from 11 May 2001) replaced it to meet TRIPS Articles 25 and 26, introduce worldwide novelty, adopt the international (Locarno) classification, and strengthen remedies. The Designs Rules, 2001 contain the procedure.

2. What is a design (s.2(d))

“Design” means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to any article, whether in two or three dimensions, by any industrial process or means (manual, mechanical or chemical), which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye. It excludes: any mode or principle of construction, anything that is in substance a mere mechanical device, trademarks, property marks and artistic works as defined in the Copyright Act.

Three elements follow: the design must be applied to an article; it must have eye appeal; and it must not be functional. A shape dictated solely by function is not a design. The Supreme Court in Bharat Glass Tube Ltd. v. Gopal Glass Works Ltd., 2008 INSC 565, held that a pattern applied to glass sheets by a special roller was a registrable design, that the article to which it was applied was the glass sheet and not the roller, and that the design must be judged by the eye in the finished article.

3. Bars to registration (s.4)

A design shall not be registered if it:

• (a) is not new or original;
• (b) has been disclosed to the public anywhere in India or in any other country by publication in tangible form, or by use or any other way, before the filing or priority date (worldwide novelty);
• (c) is not significantly distinguishable from known designs or combinations of known designs; or
• (d) comprises scandalous or obscene matter.

Section 5 gives the procedure for application, and a design may be registered in only one class of articles per application. Section 44 allows reciprocal (convention) priority of six months.

4. Procedure

Application to the Controller of Designs (the Design Office is at the Patent Office, Kolkata), with representations of the article and a statement of novelty; examination for compliance and novelty; objections and hearing; registration and publication in the Patent Office Journal; issue of a certificate. There is no pre-registration opposition. Since the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, an appeal from the Controller lies to the High Court.

5. Term (s.11)

Copyright in a registered design lasts ten years from registration, extendable once by five years on application and fee before expiry, for a maximum of fifteen years. A lapsed design may be restored within one year of lapse.

6. Rights and piracy (s.22)

Registration gives the proprietor “copyright in the design”, which is the exclusive right to apply the design to any article in the registered class. Piracy is: applying the design or a fraudulent or obvious imitation of it to any article in the class for sale, without consent; importing such articles for sale; or publishing or exposing them for sale knowing the design has been applied without consent. The test is visual, through the eyes of an instructed consumer, comparing the overall impression rather than details.

7. Remedies

A person who commits piracy is liable to pay the proprietor up to Rs 25,000 for every contravention, recoverable as a contract debt, but the total for any one design shall not exceed Rs 50,000 (s.22(2)(a)). Alternatively the proprietor may sue for damages and an injunction (s.22(2)(b)). Suits must be in a court not below a District Court; if the defendant pleads a ground of cancellation as a defence, the suit is transferred to the High Court (s.22(4)). The fixed sums are criticised as too low to deter, though the suit for damages is unlimited.

8. Cancellation (s.19)

Any person interested may petition the Controller for cancellation on the grounds that the design was previously registered in India, was published before the registration date, is not new or original, is not registrable, or is not a design within s.2(d). Appeal lies to the High Court.

9. Overlap with copyright

Section 15 of the Copyright Act, 1957: (1) no copyright subsists under that Act in a design registered under the Designs Act; (2) copyright in a design capable of registration but not registered ceases as soon as an article to which the design has been applied is reproduced more than fifty times by an industrial process by the owner or with his licence. The purpose is to stop a designer from claiming the long copyright term for an industrial product without registering it.

The Delhi High Court Division Bench in Microfibres Inc. v. Girdhar & Co. (2009) held that the original artistic work (a painting) keeps full copyright, but once it is industrially applied as a design the s.15(2) limit applies to the design. The Supreme Court in Cryogas Equipment Pvt. Ltd. v. Inox India Ltd., 2025 INSC 483, explained how s.15(2) operates: the court first asks whether the work is a purely artistic work or a design derived from it for industrial application, and then, if it is the latter, applies the fifty-reproductions rule.

On passing off, a Full Bench of the Delhi High Court in Mohan Lal v. Sona Paint & Hardwares (2013) held that a passing off action lies for a registered design used as a trademark, since the Designs Act does not exclude the common law right; a design cannot be registered as a mark, but goodwill in its use is protected.

10. International comparison

• TRIPS Arts 25–26: members must protect independently created designs that are new or original, may exclude designs dictated essentially by technical or functional considerations, and must give at least ten years. India complies.
• EU: the Community Design Regulation (2002) gives both a registered design (up to 25 years) and an unregistered design right for three years from first disclosure, with a test of “individual character” to an informed user. The EU reformed its design law in 2024.
• UK: registered designs, plus the unregistered design right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which protects shape and configuration, including functional designs.
• US: design patents under 35 U.S.C. §171, for 15 years. Apple v. Samsung (US Supreme Court, 2016) held that the “article of manufacture” for damages may be a component, not the whole phone.
• Hague Agreement: India is not a member, so Indian designers must file country by country.

How this is examined

Q5 of 2024. Write the ten headings above, giving section numbers for definition (s.2(d)), bars (s.4), term (s.11), cancellation (s.19) and piracy (s.22), with Bharat Glass Tube for definition and Cryogas for the copyright overlap. End with the critique.