Law on Registration of Design and Principles of Intellectual Property Rights

Law on Registration of Design and Principles of Intellectual Property Rights

In an important judgment of Mohan Lal v. Sona Paint and Hardwares [2013] GCtR 4614 (Delhi) it was held that Registration of a design under the Designs Act, 2000 creates a monopoly in favour of the registrant. 

A registration therefore, can be obtained only if it does not fall within the ambit of Section 4 of the Designs Act. Section 4 of the Designs Act describes negatively as to which designs cannot be registered. To put it positively designs which are new or original or which have not been pre-published, i.e., disclosed to the public either in India or abroad in a tangible form or by use or by any other way prior to the institution of an application for that purpose, or wherever applicable the priority date qua such an application or, is significantly distinguishable from known designs or combination of known designs and does not contain scandalous or obscene matter, such a design, can be registered. 

It was explained that Design as is generally understood refers to the features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament when applied to an article. It is for this reason that designs such as these are described as Industrial Designs. It is these designs which are covered under the Designs Act. Designs can be two dimensional or three dimensional. While pattern or an ornament would ordinarily be applied to an article; shape and configuration, become the article itself. Designs in that sense relate to the non-functional features of the article. Therefore, by necessary corollary, a design which has functional attributes cannot be registered under the Designs Act. This is the essence of Section 2(d) of the Designs Act. The protection under the Designs Act is granted only to those designs which have an aesthetic value or otherwise appeal to the eye.