Essential Requirements For Design Registration

Design Registration is one of the categories of Intellectual Property Rights, which is governed under the Design Act,2000. According to this, any article which has an aesthetic feature and is unique due to its visual appearance can be registered under the Design Act.  It refers to the feature of shape, pattern, configuration or composition of lines or unique colour of an article, whether its in two or three dimensional or in both forms. Designs do not include any mode or principle of construction or anything which is a mere mechanical device. It also does not include a trademark or any artistic work. Article appearance should be unique. 

Benefits of Design Registration

These are the benefits of Design Registration:

1. Design Registration gives an exclusive right to the owner of the article in the class for which design has been registered.
2. A registered proprietor of the design has all the exclusive rights to protect their intellectual property. If anybody infringes his right, then owner registered design has all exclusive right to sue for infringement. 
3. The owner of a registered design has all the right to sell his design or license for a consideration or royalty.
4. If a design is protected, then anyone else cannot imitate or copy the same design until unless authorized by the owner.
5. This ensures the design owner that design is exclusive, and the customer can at once identify the design of the product as that of the owner.
6. It gives the owner monopoly over the product
7. Registration is valid for ten years and it can be extended by paying the fee. 

Essential requirements for registration of design

These are the essential requirements for registration of design:

1. It should be Original or new and should not have been published or used in any country before the application for registration.
2. It should be related to shape, pattern, configuration, or ornamentation of the article applied for registration.
3. It should be applicable to any unique article by any industrial process.
4. The feature of design of the article should be unique.
5. Mental activity for a conception of new and unique design should be there while filing an application for registration of a design.
6. The design should be significantly unique and distinguishable from other known designs.
7. It should not be obscene, scandalous or contrary to morality
8. It should not attract the provisions of section 4 of the design act
9. The novelty may reside in the application of a known shape or pattern to new Subject matter. 

Who can apply for registration

Any person who is claiming to be the proprietor of any new or original design and which is not previously published anywhere and should not fall under the provisions of section 4 of the design act May apply for registration. Now Any person means and includes- Proprietor of design, an individual, any firm, any partnership firm, or any company or legal entity of the proprietor of design. An application can also be filed through an agent.

Documents required for registration of design

• Aadhar Card, Pan Card of the proprietor
• Aadhar Card of one partner or director(In case of partnership firm or company)
• Gst registration of firm, company
• Incorporation certificate of a company( in case of a company)
• Partnership deed(in case of partnership firm)
• Power of attorney given to the agent and it should be  signed by the proprietor, partner or director
• Pictures of Article i.e., Front view, Back view, side view, down view
• Description About the article unique features
• Documentary proof( if any previous registration is there)

Information required for registration of a design 

• Applicant details like Name, address, nationality, etc
• Company detail, if filing as company
• Name of the article, which design is to be applied for registration.
• A brief description of the article.
• Power of attorney
• Class of the article 
• Details of the person, who is signing a power of attorney

Procedure for registration of design

For filing of an application for registration of design in India, these procedures need to be followed:

1. Registration for design application needs to be filed with the Controller of Designs, The Patent Office at Kolkata. However, there are other branch offices of the patent office located in New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad, and here also, the application can be submitted.  But these branch offices will further send the application to the Head office.
2. It can be filed online and offline. For online, one needs to login which can be done through an agent. Even after filing online, hard copy also required to be submitted.
3. An application Form 1 shall be neatly filled, for which few pieces of information are required, like Name, address, the nationality of the applicant. If the applicant is a company, etc., then complete details of the company need to be mentioned. The Name of the article shall be mentioned in the form. Class of the article under  design registration needs to be  to mention. Due to online filing, nowadays its very convenient to apply for design registration from anywhere. Online filing can be done through any agent or attorney as I mentioned above by clicking on the link. Once Form 1 will be filed online, attorney need to save the same and it should be like this:

1. Two copies of  Representations of the article in the form of photographs or drawing figures showing front, rear, top, bottom, and side views of the article are required. 
2. If the design is to be registered in more than one class, then the separate application shall be filed for each class. 
3. If a colour combination is the uniqueness of design, then it should be clearly depicted in the representation.
4. A power of attorney shall be submitted with the application if a filing is to be done through an agent.
5. Once the application submitted with all the required details, then receipt should be generated for the same.

After this,  it will proceed for further examination. If any kind of objection raised by the office, reply to the same need to be submitted. On removal of objection only, the certificate can be issued.

1. Application status can be tracked online by clicking on this link

1. The design registration is valid for ten years from the date of registration; further, it can be extended by a period of five years by filing Form-3 accompanied by a fee.

Grounds on the basis of which registration can be cancelled:

1. It can be cancelled anytime after the registration, on a petition for cancellation in form 8. 
2. If the design is previously registered, then it’s a sufficient ground for cancellation.
3. If it has been published in India or elsewhere prior to the date of registration
4. If the design is not original or new, then it can be cancelled.
5. If the design is not registrable or It is not a design under Clause (d) of Section 2.

Restoration of the lapsed design 

Design registration can be ceased in case of non-payment of extension fee before the expiry of the original period. There is a provision in the design act, according to which it can be restored by filing an Application form for restoration with the prescribed fee and also need to state the reason for delay.

Piracy of a Registered Design

If anyone imitates or copy the registered design, then it is a violation of the right of the owner, and for every contravention, he/she is liable to pay fine. The owner can send a legal notice also for the same and can drag that person to the court for the recovery of damages. A suit of injunction can also be filed against such a person for saving the right of ownership.  

Conclusion