What Qualifies for Design Protection
A registrable design must be new or original, applied to an article by an industrial process, and judged solely by the eye — meaning purely functional features dictated solely by the article's function, without any aesthetic element, generally fall outside design protection (though they may be eligible for patent protection instead if they meet patentability criteria).
Registration Essentials
- Novelty: the design must not have been previously published or disclosed anywhere, including in India, before the application date.
- Term: initial registration lasts 10 years from the date of registration, renewable for a further 5 years upon payment of the prescribed fee.
- Classification: designs are classified according to the Locarno Classification system, which India adopted to align with international practice.
- No pre-filing disclosure: as the Act contains no grace period, any disclosure — including the applicant's own marketing, sales, or website publication — before filing can defeat novelty and expose the eventual registration to cancellation.
Enforcement
A registered design owner can sue for infringement where a fraudulent or obvious imitation of the design is applied to any article for commercial purposes. Common law passing off may also be available alongside a design infringement claim in appropriate circumstances, subject to the evolving jurisprudence on composite suits (see our notes on Mohan Lal and Carlsberg).
Practical Guidance
Businesses developing new product designs should prioritise filing before any public disclosure, marketing, or sale — the absence of a grace period in Indian design law makes this a strict and unforgiving requirement compared to some other jurisdictions.