Design Search

The registration and protection of industrial designs in India are administered by the Designs Act, 2000 and corresponding Designs Rules, 2001 which came into force on 11th May 2001 repealing the earlier Act of 1911. The Design Rules, 2001 was further amended by Designs (Amendment) Rules 2008 and Designs (Amendment) Rules 2014, any mode or principle of construction or anything which is in substance merely mechanical device;

• Any trademark which is a registered trademark indicating a connection in course of trade between the goods and some person having the right, either as proprietor or as a registered user, to use the mark;
• Any trademark which denotes the ownership of movable property belonging to a particular person; and
• Any trademark which is a painting, sculpture, drawing, an engraving or photograph or any work of architecture or any other work of artistic craftsmanship

When a design is protected, the owner i.e. the person or entity that has registered the design is assured an exclusive right against unauthorized copying or imitation of the design by third parties A market loaded with similar products, it’s essential to be unique to stand distinguished. Unique designs will stand out from the crowd and gets easily noticed.

Our team guides you through the process of protecting your design rights by assisting you in determining what can and what can’t be protected, either through registered or unregistered rights

Advantages of Design registration:

- Designs should not be seen as an alternative to patents but as a complementary protection.

- Design registration is cheaper to obtain than patent protection and the application procedure is far shorter.

- If the expected lifetime of a product is short, and the product will be simple to produce, the design registration may be more useful than patents.

- Action can be taken against an infringer and, unlike with copyright, actual copying of the protected design is not required to be proved

Design Registration Process/Procedures

Applying for Registration of Design

The application for registration of design can be filed by the applicant himself/herself or through a professional person ( i.e. patent agent, legal practitioner). However, for the applicants not being residents of India, an agent residing in India has to be employed.

Place of applying for Registration of Design

Any person who desires to register a design shall submit the following documents to the Controller of Designs, The Patent Office at Kolkata, or at any of its branch offices at New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

Duration of the Registration of a Design and its extension

The duration of the registration of a design is initially ten years from the date of registration. This initial period of registration may be extended by the further period of 5 years on an application made in Form-3 accompanied by a fee of Rs. 2,000/- to the Controller before the expiry of the said initial period of Copyright.

Cancellation of Registration of a Design

The registration of a design may be canceled at any time after the registration of a design, on a petition for cancellation in form 8, to the Controller of Designs, on the following grounds:
That the design has been previously registered in India or
That it has been published in India or elsewhere prior to the date of registration or
The design is not new or original or
The design is not registrable or
It is not a design under Clause (d) of Section 2.

Documents Required for Design Registration

• A certified copy of the original or certified copies of extracts from disclaimers
• Affidavits
• Declarations and
• Other public documents can be made available on payment of a fee.

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.

The design should be registered with all essential documents including reciprocity date and maintained on diskette and floppy or any other master folder. Any request for alteration of address should be made in Form 22. Under the Rule 33, details of the name, address and nationality of the person entitled should be recorded. Where registration is needed we take care of the actual filing process, making sure it is done correctly, efficiently and swiftly, so that you become a proud owner of your unique identifier and now even capable to assert your design rights whenever and wherever need arise.