A design registration protects the visual appearance of an article: its shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours.
It protects how a product looks, not how it works. Function is the domain of patents.
File before you launch
This is the rule that matters most, and the one most often broken.
A design must be new or original and must not have been disclosed to the public anywhere in India or abroad before the filing date.
Once your product is in the public domain, you generally cannot register its design. Not after the launch, not after the trade show, not after the catalogue went out.
For design-led businesses, this means the filing decision has to sit before the product release, not after it. By the time a competitor copies a successful product, it is usually too late to register the design that would have stopped them.
What can be registered
The design must be:
- New or original, not previously published or publicly disclosed
- Applied to an article by an industrial process
- Judged solely by the eye in the finished article
- Not a mere mechanical device
- Not contrary to public order or morality
What cannot be registered includes designs dictated solely by function, mere variations of known shapes, and anything that is really a trademark, property mark or artistic work rather than a design.
Term of protection
Ten years from registration, extendable by a further five years, on application before expiry.
Fifteen years is the maximum, and there is no further renewal. This is a meaningfully shorter horizon than a trademark, which renews indefinitely.
Classification
Designs are classified under the Locarno Classification, which sorts designs by the type of article rather than by appearance.
Classification matters for searching and for defining the scope of the registration.
Search before filing
Because novelty is the core requirement, it is worth searching before filing to establish whether the same or a similar design already exists on the register.
This also matters in reverse. If you find someone has registered a design you developed first, establishing prior ownership is possible but considerably harder than having filed in time.
Enforcement
Piracy of a registered design is actionable under the Designs Act, 2000. Remedies include injunction and damages.
Where design and trademark overlap
Design protection expires. Trademark protection does not.
Owners of distinctive product shapes sometimes seek trademark protection for the same shape once design rights lapse, effectively seeking indefinite protection. Indian courts treat this cautiously.
The Harpic bottle dispute raised exactly this question, and Section 9(3) of the Trade Marks Act limits registration of shapes that result from the nature of the goods, are necessary to obtain a technical result, or give substantial value to the goods. See marks that cannot be registered.
There is a related interaction with copyright. Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act ends copyright in an artistic work once it has been industrially applied more than fifty times without design registration, a point the Supreme Court clarified in Cryogas Equipment Pvt Ltd v Inox India Ltd.
The practical consequence: for a design-led product, choosing between design registration and reliance on copyright is a decision with consequences, and it needs making early.
Frequently asked questions
Can I register a design after launching the product? Generally no. Prior public disclosure destroys novelty. File before the product enters the public domain.
How long does design protection last in India? Ten years from registration, extendable by five, for a maximum of fifteen years. There is no further renewal.
What is the difference between a design and a patent? A design protects appearance. A patent protects function and technical effect.
Can I protect the shape of my product as a trademark instead? Sometimes, but Section 9(3) of the Trade Marks Act limits shape marks, and Indian courts are cautious about using trademark law to extend expired design protection.
Does copyright protect my design instead? Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act ends copyright in an artistic work industrially applied more than fifty times without design registration. Relying on copyright for a product design that will be mass produced is risky.
What is the Locarno Classification? The international system for classifying designs by type of article, used for filing and searching.
Useful official resources
- IP India — Designs
- Designs Act, 2000
- WIPO Locarno Classification
Launching a design-led product? Talk to us before it goes public. After launch, the option usually closes.