Some works can be protected as both copyright and design — until you apply them industrially. The Delhi High Court used Section 15 of the Copyright Act, and a memorable set of examples, to draw the line. It’s clearer than before, but questions remain.
The law
- An artistic work is “a painting, a sculpture, a drawing (including a diagram, map, chart or plan), an engraving or a photograph, whether or not [it] possesses artistic quality.” The author can reproduce it in any form, 2D or 3D.
- A design covers only features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines/colours applied to an article by an industrial process — and expressly excludes artistic work as defined by the Copyright Act.
- Section 15 of the Copyright Act: if a copyright capable of being registered as a design is not registered as one, the copyright ceases once more than 50 articles are made by an industrial process.
The dispute
The plaintiffs made gold-sheet articles of deities and religious symbols from drawings created with specialised software. Alleging the defendants made identical articles, they sued for copyright infringement and passing off. The court had to decide: was the work capable of protection as a design, and did the copyright cease because of its industrial application?
The court’s analysis
The court held that an artistic work keeps its copyright when reproduced in any form — but when it’s used as the basis for designing an article through an industrial process, that industrial application is protected as a design:
“as an original artistic work it would continue to enjoy the full copyright… and cannot be reproduced in any two or three dimensional form by anyone except the owner… What it would cease to enjoy is the copyright protection in its industrial application for production of an article.”
The illustration made it vivid:
“If a painting, say Hussain’s painting of a horse, is simply reproduced in any medium… it will continue to enjoy full copyright. But if the painting is used as a motif to produce, say, sarees, the industrial application… would lose copyright protection, if not registered as a design… after more than fifty applications.”
The outcome — and the puzzle
On the facts, the court held the plaintiff’s gold-plate articles were a 3D reproduction of the drawings themselves — i.e. the artistic work, not merely a design — and noted the plaintiff had not made more than 50 reproductions. A further example: a drawing of a refrigerator or mixer, once made into a product, becomes a design, not an artistic work.
The tension is real: the excerpt suggests copyright persists in the artistic work even as design protection attaches to its industrial application, yet the saree illustration says copyright is lost past 50 articles if unregistered as a design. Because “artistic quality” and “industrial applicability” are so fact-dependent, these cases are best decided case by case.
The takeaways
- Register the design if you’ll industrially produce an artistic work in quantity — past 50 articles, unregistered copyright in the industrial application can cease under Section 15.
- Pure reproduction keeps copyright — reproducing an artwork as an artwork (even in 3D) stays within copyright.
- Industrial application shifts you to design law — a drawing turned into a mass-produced product is a design, not an artistic work.
- It’s fact-specific — artistic quality and the nature of the industrial use decide each case.
Frequently asked questions
Does copyright in an artwork end when it’s industrially applied? Under Section 15, if a work capable of design registration isn’t registered as a design, its copyright ceases once more than 50 articles are made by an industrial process.
What’s the difference between copyright and design protection here? Copyright protects the artistic work itself; design protects the shape/pattern applied to an article by an industrial process — and design expressly excludes Copyright Act “artistic work.”
What is the 50-article rule? If you industrially produce more than 50 articles from an artistic work without registering it as a design, you can lose copyright protection in that industrial application.
How did the court illustrate the line? Hussain’s horse reproduced as a painting keeps full copyright; the same horse used as a saree motif loses copyright past 50 sarees unless registered as a design.
Legislation referred to
- The Copyright Act, 1957
- The Designs Act, 2000