Design Patent Registration

•A certified copy of the original or certified copies of extracts from disclaimers

•Affidavits

•Declarations

•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.

1. APPLICATION:

An application must be filed along with four copies of the representation of the design and the prescribed fee; a number along with the filing receipt will be allocated according to the actual date of its receipt by the office.

2.EXAMINATION

The Designs office automatically takes up the application for examination. Defects in the application are communicated to the applicant, these should be corrected and the application resubmitted to the Design office for acceptance. Further examination reports may be issued if the requirements are not met in the response or a hearing may be offered. However, all responses must be filed and the application must be placed in order for acceptance within six months from date of filing of the application in India.

3. ACCEPTANCE

An application is accepted when all the official requirements and objections are met.

4. REFUSAL

In case the defects as required by the Controller are not rectified the application is refused.

5. PUBLICATION

The design, upon registration, is notified in the Official Journal.

6. REGISTRATION

An application proceeds to registration, upon its acceptance and the registration certificate is issued.

7. TERM OF DESIGN

The term of registration is 15 years. The registration is valid for an initial term of 10 years from the date of registration, followed by another 5 years on renewal. This right will cease if the fee for extension is not paid within the initial term. However, the law allows for restoration of registration on a lapsed design, if the restoration application is filed within a year from the date of cessation.

8. DATE OF REGISTRATION

This is the base date for counting the term of protection and is also the cut-off date for assessing novelty. If priority is claimed, then the priority date; but otherwise, the date of filing in India is the date of registration.

9. CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION

An interested person may petition to the Controller to cancel a registered design at any time after registration on the specified. The cancellation petition should be accompanied by a statement of case detailing applicants’ (for cancellation application) interest, facts and matters on which he bases his case in support of the grounds taken, and relief (s) he is seeking. The registered proprietor, who is served with the Statement of case, then files his Counter-Statement followed by evidences to be addressed by both the parties to the proceedings. Once the evidence stage is completed, the Controller would fix a date of hearing and then after hearing the parties renders his decision either canceling the design registration or dismissing the cancellation application.

10. Appeals

All decisions of the Controller under the Designs Act are appealable. The appeal lies at the High Court having relevant jurisdiction. The appeal should be made within three months from the date of the Controller's decision.

Registered design is a shape, configuration, pattern or ornament or composition of lines or colour or combination thereof applied to any article whether two dimensional or three dimensional protected under the Designs Act, 2000. Design registration is similar to copyright registration, patent or trademark registration and a type of intellectual property registration – which protects creations of the mind. In this article, we review the basics of registered design in India.

For a design to be registered under the Designs Act, it must satisfy the following six conditions:

A. The design should be new or original, not previously published or used in any country before the date of application for registration.

B. The design should relate to features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation applied or applicable to an article. Thus, designs of industrial plans, layouts and installations are not registrable under the Act.

C. The design should be applied or applicable to any article by any industrial process. Normally, designs of artistic nature like painting, sculptures and the like which are not produced in bulk by any industrial process are excluded from registration under the Act.

D. The features of the design in the finished article should appeal to and are judged solely by the eye. This implies that the design must appear and should be visible on the finished article, for which it is meant. Thus, any design in the inside arrangement of a box, money purse or almirah may not be considered for showing such articles in the open state, as those articles are generally put in the market in the closed state.

E. Any mode or principle of construction or operation or anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device, would not be registrable design.

F. The design should not include any Trademark or Copyright.

The following items cannot be registered as a design:

A. Books, jackets, calendars, certificates, forms-and other documents, dressmaking patterns, greeting cards, leaflets, maps and plan cards, postcards, stamps, medals.

B. Labels, tokens, cards, cartoons. any principle or mode of construction of an article.

C. Mere mechanical contrivance.

D. Buildings and structures.

E. Parts of articles not manufactured and sold separately.

F. Variations commonly used in the trade.

G. Mere workshop alterations of components of an assembly.

H. Mere change in size of article.

I. Flags, emblems or signs of any country.

J. Layout designs of integrated circuits.

All documents pertaining to a registered design are maintained by the Patent Office to put competitors on notice about registration of a design. A registered design provides the creator, exclusive rights over use of the design for a period of ten years, that can be further extended for a period of five years. In case of infringement or piracy of a registered design, the owner of the registered design can seek legal remedy under the Designs Act. Anyone found contravening to the copyright in a design, is liable for every offence to pay a sum not exceeding Rs. 25,000/- to the registered proprietor subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000/- recoverable as contract debt in respect of any one design. Thus, registering a design provides legal remedy against infringement.

1. Design Form (Provided by us)

2. Power of Attorney (Provided by us)

3. Article Image/Photo of all sides i.e. Front/Back/Top/Bottom/Perspective