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Law of Designs

LL.M. · 13 topics in 5 units

Past question papers for Law of Designs

Unit I 1 topic

  1. Designs, Integrated Circuits, GIs and Confidential Information: History, Significance and InterfaceHow the four rights in this paper grew up internationally and in India, why each matters for industrial and economic growth, and where they meet each other and copyright, trade marks and patents, with Cryogas and the Delhi High Court's Carlsberg ruling.7 min

Unit II 5 topics

  1. Industrial Designs: Meaning, Rationale and Industrial GrowthWhat a design is under section 2(d) of the Designs Act 2000, the eye-appeal test and its exclusions, why the law protects designs at all, and how design protection feeds industrial growth, with UK, EU and US comparisons.5 min
  2. Novelty and Originality of DesignsSection 4 of the Designs Act 2000: new or original, worldwide prior publication, significant distinguishability from known designs, the eye of the instructed customer, and Gopal Glass Works and Reckitt Benckiser v. Wyeth, compared with the EU individual-character and US ordinary-observer tests.6 min
  3. Designs and Copyright: The Overlap and Section 15Where artistic works end and designs begin: section 15 of the Copyright Act, the fifty-copies rule, Microfibres (Delhi HC 2009), Ritika v. Biba, the Supreme Court's two-step test in Cryogas v. Inox (2025), and the UK, US and EU approaches to cumulation.6 min
  4. Registration and Cancellation of DesignsThe procedure under the Designs Act 2000 from application to certificate, classification under Locarno, priority, term and restoration, and cancellation under section 19 with appeals to the High Court after the abolition of the IPAB.6 min
  5. Rights of the Registered Proprietor, Piracy and RemediesThe proprietor's copyright in a registered design, piracy under section 22, the fraudulent-or-obvious-imitation test, civil remedies and their limits, defences, and passing off of designs after Mohan Lal and Carlsberg, with Trunki and Apple v. Samsung for comparison.6 min

Unit III 2 topics

  1. Geographical Indications: Registration, Effect and International ProtectionThe Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999: meaning, registration procedure, authorised users, effect of registration and infringement; TRIPS Articles 22 to 24, Lisbon and Geneva, and the two Madrid instruments, with Darjeeling and basmati as examples.7 min
  2. GI Act 1999: Background, Key Definitions, Duration, Rectification and RemediesWhy India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods Act, the statutory meaning of registered proprietor, authorised user, producer and deceptively similar, duration and renewal, rectification and correction of the register, and the civil and criminal remedies as amended by the Tribunals Reforms Act 2021 and the Jan Vishwas Act 2023.8 min

Unit IV 3 topics

  1. Confidential Information and Trade SecretsThe equitable action for breach of confidence (Saltman, Coco v. Clark, Spycatcher), how confidential information differs from trade secrets, TRIPS Article 39, the US and EU statutes, and India's contract-and-equity approach with Brady, Burlington, Golikari and Krishan Murgai.6 min
  2. Protecting Trade Secrets: Legislative Measures, Technology Transfer Agreements and NDAsThe modes of protecting trade secrets in India (contract, equity, scattered statutes and the proposed trade secrets law), the clauses and legal limits of non-disclosure agreements under section 27 of the Contract Act, and technology transfer agreements under TRIPS Articles 7 and 40, section 140 of the Patents Act and the Competition Act.7 min
  3. Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Layout-DesignsWhy chip layouts needed a sui generis right, the Washington Treaty of 1989 and TRIPS Articles 35 to 38, the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act 2000 (registrability, term, infringement, reverse engineering, innocent infringement), and the US Semiconductor Chip Protection Act.8 min

Unit V 2 topics

  1. International Instruments on Industrial DesignsThe Paris Convention, Berne Article 2(7), the Hague system and its Acts of 1934, 1960 and 1999, the Locarno classification, TRIPS Articles 25 and 26, and the Riyadh Design Law Treaty of 2024, with the question whether India should join Hague.5 min
  2. Protection of Traditional KnowledgeWhat traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions are, why conventional IP fits them badly, defensive and positive protection, India's TKDL and Patents Act safeguards, CBD Article 8(j), the WIPO IGC and the 2024 WIPO Treaty on IP, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge.6 min