ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC NAME- Meaning and Registration of Design

SUBJECT- The Intellectual Property laws

ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED TO

FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

For the partial fulfilment of requirement in

B.A.LL.B.(Hons.)- VIII Sem. (Section- A)

Under Guidance of: Submitted By:

Dr. Abhishek Kr. Tewari Akshata Singh

Univ. Roll No.- 190013015096

FACULTY OF LAW Class Roll No.- 37

FACULTY OF LAW

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

LUCKNOW, U.P.

2022-23

1
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction
2. Importance of registration of designs
3. Prohibition of registration of certain design
4. Registration of designs
• Who can apply for registration of design?
• Application for Registration of Design under section 5
➢ Submission of application
➢ Acceptance /Refusal
➢ Objection/Removal of Objection/Appeal to Central
Government
➢ Registration of the design
5. Duration of Design
6. The chart
7. Case law
8. Conclusion
9. Bibliography

2
 Introduction
The Design Act, 2000, was made effective from May 11, 2001, and the Designs Rules, 2001
govern the registration of designs in India. According to the Act, the design registration protects
the features of shape, pattern, ornamentation or composition of lines or colours that are applied
to the articles. Since a design registration tries to protect only the design’s visual appeal, it does
not include any scope or feature that is a mode of construction or a mere mechanical device or
any artistic work that is covered under the Copyright Act or any trademark included under the
Trademarks Act.

Importance of registration of designs

Often we come across products and articles which are recognizable simply by looking at their
designs. Unique designs attract the attention of people and people tend to recognize the product
primarily through its form, shape or structure.

According to section 2(d)- “Design” means features of shape, pattern, configuration, ornament
or composition of colours or lines which is applied in three dimensional or two dimensional or
in both the forms using any of the processes whether manual, chemical, mechanical, separate
or combined which in the finished article appeal to or judged wholly by the eye.

Industrial design essentially is the uniqueness of an article which makes it stylish, appealing
and attractive, making it stand out and facilitating its potential in any industry as well as
increasing the commercial value of that product or article. There are so many valid reasons to
protect designs under the Design Act, 2000. First of all, industrial design protection favours
fair competition in the industry by encouraging creativity, originality and novelty. The design
of a particular product increases its marketability as well as its commercial value. When a
design is registered, it becomes exclusive to the owner and the consumer can easily identify
that the product belongs to a particular brand. Registered designs can be sold in the market or
can be used for paying liabilities as it becomes a business asset.

The most important benefit and basic purpose of a registered design are if anyone infringes
your design, you can file a case or suit upon the infringer for the loss to your sales as well as

3
damage to your goodwill in the market. When a design is registered it gives its owner the
exclusive right against unauthorized copying or imitation of the design by third parties. Another
benefit is that an owner can license the design or sell the design if he is in need of money or if
he has limited production capacity.

Registration of Design

Now talking about registration of Design which is given under chapter 2 from section 3 to 10
of the Design Act , 2000.

PROHIBITION OF REGISTRATION OF DESIGN

Section 4 of Design Act 2000 talks about the Prohibition of registration of certain designs.-

1. Design which is not new or original; or

2. Which has been disclosed to the public any where in India or in any other
country by publication in tangible form or by use or in any other way prior to
the filing date, or where applicable, the priority date of the application for
registration; or

3. Which is not significantly distinguishable from known designs or combination

of known designs; or

4. Which comprises or contains scandalous or obscene matter, shall not be

registered.
Section 4 of the Design Act 2000 provides that the Designs, which are neither new,
nor original, or prior published or not significantly different from know designs, or
is combination of known designs etc are not registrable within the provisions of
Design Act 2000.

1. Who can apply for registration of design ?

4
 Any person claiming to be the proprietor of any new or original design may apply for
registration .

A proprietator as defined under section 2(j) may be – a.

An author of the design ;
b. A person for whom the design has been developed by the author ;
c. A person who has acquired the design ;
d. A person on whom the design have devolved.

2. Application for Registration of Design under section 5

Submission of application

The proprietor of the design shall submit the application for registration in the patent office.
The application shall be in the prescribed form and shall be accompanied by the prescribed
fees. According to section 5(1), the controller may on application made by any person claiming
to be the proprietor of any new or original design not previously published in any country and
which is not contrary to public order and morality, register the design under the Act. The
application is to be accompanied by the prescribed fee and in prescribed Form and in prescribed
manner. The application shall state the class in which the design is to be registered.

a. Design application can be filed in any of the four patent office . However prosecution
of the design application is done only at the Kolkata.
b. The application for design is filed in form 1.
c. The application should consist of name and address of applicant, legal status of
aggrieved description of article and identification of class as per Locarne classification
, image and drawing , claim of novelty and requisite fees.

Acceptance /Refusal

Before registration, the Controller shall refer the application to an examiner appointed under
this Act, to determine whether the design is capable of registration under this Act. The

5
Controller shall consider the report of the examiner and if satisfied that the design complies
with all requirements for registration under this Act shall register it. The Controller may if he
thinks fit refuse to register the design. The aggrieved by such refusal may appeal to the High
Court .The Controller may refuse to register a design, the use of which would be contrary to
public order or morality.

Objection/Removal of Objection/Appeal to Central Government

If on consideration of the application any objections appear to the Controller, a statement of

these objections shall be sent to the applicant or his agent. The applicant has to remove the
objection within one month of communication of the objections to him failing which the
application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn. He may also apply to the Controller for
being heard on the matter. When the Controller refuses the application after the submission, he
may directly appeal to the Central Government whose decision is final. The decision of the
Central Government on the registrability of the design is final.

Registration of the design

According to section 7- As soon as the design is registered the Controller shall direct the
publication of the particulars of the design and thereafter it becomes open to public inspection.

Section 9 says that on the completion of the above procedure, the Controller shall grant a
certificate of registration to the proprietor of the design.

As per section 10, a book called Register of designs shall be kept in the patent office. The
register shall contain particulars such as the names and addresses of the proprietors of registered
designs, notifications of assignments and other prescribed particulars.

Duration Of Design

Section 11 of the Design Act 2000.

Copyright on registration:

6
1. When a design is registered, the registered proprietor of the design shall, subject to the
provisions of this Act, have copyright in the design during ten years from the date of
registration.

2. If, before the expiration of the said ten years, application for the extension of the period of
copyright is made to the Controller in the prescribed manner, the Controller shall, on
payment of the prescribed fee, extend the period of copyright for a second period of five
years from the expiration of the original period of ten years.
Hence , total year of statutory protection of Registered Design is 15 years (10+5) from the
date of Registration.

3. Here , the chart is given for more clarification –

Case law-

Ampro Food Products v. Ashoka Biscuit works, AIR 1973

7
 In this case the appellants and respondents manufactured biscuits. The appellant’s
design was registered. The respondent’s biscuits also had an identical design embossed
on them except that instead of letter “AP” letters “AB” appeared on the respondent’s
biscuits. The appellants filed a suit for injunction claiming that the respondent had
committed piracy of his design. Pending in disposal of the suit, they sought temporary
injunction.

The court held that, for an injunction based on registered design, the defense that the
appellant’s design was not new or original was not open to the respondent since he had
not taken any steps for cancellation of the registration of design.
The court issued temporary injunction restraining the respondent from using the
appellant’s registered design and from selling biscuits bearing that design.

Conclusion

Preserving originality is the essence of Intellectual Property rights. In India, it is not compulsory
to register an industrial design under Design Act, 2000 for usage. But for the better commercial
value of the product, gaining new customers, promotion of the brand in the whole world, it
becomes extremely essential. Some articles or products are very dynamic and everchanging in
nature and they deserve to get legal protection for their owner. Thus, the object behind the
creation of this Act is to regulate the design registering process by industrial means.

But in 2021 also, people tend to ignore the importance of registration of intellectual properties
as it is not compulsory in India to register them. Mostly, small and medium business enterprises
are unaware of how they can gain more commercial value for their product and promote their
brand by registering their Industrial Designs. For successful registration of various IPs, people
should hire an attorney who has good knowledge of IP as it might help them avoid IP
infringement cases.

8
 Bibliography

Bare act-
• The Intellectual Property Laws , Universal’s
Publication

Online Sources-

• https://www.legalservicesindia.com/
https://blog.ipleaders.in/