A registered design protects the look of a product — and only the look. Before filing, two questions decide everything: is what you want to protect a “design” in the Act’s sense, and is it still new? The second is where most applications fail, usually because the product was shown to the world before anyone thought about filing.
Quick reference
| What is protected | Shape, configuration, pattern, ornament, or composition of lines or colours, applied to an article and judged by the eye |
| Must be | New or original; not published or used anywhere in the world before filing |
| Not protected | How the article works; mechanical devices; trademarks; artistic works |
| Disclosures that do not count | Confidential disclosure; a first confidential order; a notified exhibition with prior notice |
| Grace period otherwise | None |
| Screen displays and icons | Registrable, since the Calcutta High Court’s 2023 decision |
What a design is
The Act protects features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to an article by an industrial process, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye. Three things are packed into that.
Features, not the article. The registration covers the visual features shown in the representations, as applied to the article named. A new bottle shape, a pattern on a fabric, the ornamentation on a lamp, the configuration of a chair.
Applied to an article. An article is any manufactured thing, and includes a part of an article if it can be made and sold separately. A design that exists only on paper, or a pattern with no product to carry it, is not registrable — which is why a design is filed against a named article in a named class.
Judged by the eye. The features must be visible and their appeal aesthetic. Features dictated purely by what the article has to do are not design features, even if they happen to look good.
What is excluded
The definition itself excludes any mode or principle of construction and anything that is in substance a mere mechanical device — those are for patents. It also excludes trademarks, property marks and artistic works as the Copyright Act defines them — a painting, a sculpture, a drawing as such. The artwork stays in copyright; the design derived from it, once applied industrially, is a design.
Beyond the definition, the Act refuses a design that:
- is not new or original
- has been disclosed to the public, in India or anywhere else, by publication in tangible form or by use or in any other way, before the filing date
- is not significantly distinguishable from known designs or combinations of known designs
- contains scandalous or obscene matter
“Original” here includes a known shape applied to a new article, where the application is itself new — an old pattern on a new kind of product can be original.
Novelty is worldwide, and it is absolute
The design must not have been published or used anywhere before the Indian filing date. Not in India, not abroad, not by a competitor, and not by the applicant. A product launched in Germany, listed on the applicant’s own website, shown at a trade fair in Dubai, or photographed in a catalogue that went to ten customers is published, and a design application for it afterwards can be refused, and a registration cancelled.
There is no general grace period. Some countries forgive an applicant’s own disclosure in the months before filing; India does not. The only relief is convention priority — a filing abroad within the previous six months gives the Indian application that earlier date, so a disclosure after the foreign filing does not hurt.
Three disclosures that do not count
The Act saves three situations:
- Disclosure in confidence — showing the design to a manufacturer, an investor or a customer under an obligation of confidence, and any breach of that obligation by the recipient.
- A first and confidential order — accepting an order for articles bearing the design, where the order is confidential.
- A notified exhibition — showing the design at an exhibition the government has notified, provided notice is given to the Controller before the exhibition and the application is filed within six months of the exhibition opening.
Anything outside those three is publication. In practice the rule is simple: file before the product is shown to anyone who is not bound to keep it quiet.
Things that are often not designs
- Colour alone, or a colour combination with no shape or pattern.
- Words, letters and numerals, which are disclaimed in the application; a design whose only new feature is a word is a trademark question.
- A logo — usually a trademark, and sometimes an artistic work, but registrable as a design in the class for graphic symbols where it is applied to an article.
- Functional shapes — a gear, a connector, a bracket, where every feature is there because the part has to fit or work.
- Trivial variants — a known design with a different size, a different colour, or a minor change that the eye would not notice.
Screen displays and icons
The Office long refused graphical user interfaces on the view that a screen display is not applied to an article by an industrial process and is not visible in the finished article. The Calcutta High Court rejected that reasoning in 2023, and GUI and icon applications are now examined on their merits, in the class for graphic symbols and surface patterns. They remain harder cases than a physical product, and how the representations show the display on the device matters.
Before filing
Two checks are worth the cost. A search of the Indian register and the major foreign design databases, to see whether the design or something close is already registered. And an honest disclosure audit — where has this product been shown, to whom, and under what terms — because the examiner will not find your trade-fair appearance, but a competitor seeking cancellation will.
Frequently asked questions
What can be registered as a design in India? Features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours, applied to an article by an industrial process, which appeal to the eye in the finished article. The design must be new or original and not previously published or used anywhere in the world.
Can I register a design after launching the product? Generally no. Public disclosure before filing, including the applicant’s own launch, listing or exhibition, destroys novelty. The exceptions are confidential disclosure, a first confidential order, and a notified exhibition with prior notice and filing within six months. There is no other grace period.
Does a design have to be new worldwide? Yes. Publication or use anywhere in the world before the Indian filing date, or the priority date where convention priority is claimed, defeats the application and is a ground for cancellation.
Can functional shapes be registered as designs? Not where the shape is dictated by function. Features that are a mode or principle of construction, or a mere mechanical device, are excluded. A shape that has both a functional purpose and an aesthetic appeal judged by the eye can qualify.
Can a logo be registered as a design? A logo is usually protected as a trademark and sometimes as an artistic work. It can also be registered as a design in the class for graphic symbols and logos where it is applied to an article, but the design route gives at most fifteen years while a trademark can last indefinitely.
Are graphical user interfaces registrable as designs in India? Yes. Following the Calcutta High Court’s 2023 decision, screen displays and icons are examined on their merits rather than refused outright. The representations must show the display as applied to the device.
Useful official resources
- IP India — designs — the Act, Rules and the register
- WIPO — Global Design Database — foreign registrations for a novelty search
See our related notes on the design registration process, design or copyright and Locarno classification.
Not sure whether a product’s look is registrable, or whether a past disclosure has already closed the door? Talk to us.