A registered design protects the appearance of an article — its shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation or composition of lines or colours, judged solely by the eye. It does not protect how the article works, what it is made of, or any functional advantage it confers. Those belong to patent law, and a shape dictated purely by function is not registrable as a design at all.
Design rights differ from copyright and trade marks in one decisive respect: there is no unregistered design right in India. If the design is not registered, there is no design right to enforce. That, combined with the absence of any grace period for prior disclosure, makes timing the whole of the exercise. This page sets out the position for a business in Mumbai.
Where a design application is examined
- Examining office
- Design Wing, Patent Office, Kolkata — for the whole of India
- Territorial jurisdiction
- None; there is no state-wise split for designs
- Where it may be filed
- Any of the four patent offices, including the Patent Office Branch, Mumbai
- Statutory basis
- Designs Act, 2000; Designs Rules, 2001
- Examining office address
- Boudhik Sampada Bhawan, CP-2, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 091
- Term
- Ten years from registration, extendable by five — Section 11
Designs work differently from both trade marks and patents. There is no territorial division of offices. The Design Wing sits at the Patent Office, Kolkata, and all technical examination of design applications for the whole of India is carried out there, whichever office the application is lodged at.
An applicant in Mumbai may lodge the application at the Patent Office Branch, Mumbai, and the date of filing at that branch is the date accorded to the application. Examination will nonetheless be carried out at Kolkata. In practice applications are filed through the CGPDTM e-filing portal, so the branch matters little.
Because there is no registry split to navigate, the questions that decide a design matter are substantive rather than procedural: whether the design is new or original, whether it has already been published, and whether the applicant has fallen into the fifty-article trap in the Copyright Act described below.
How the firm acts for a client in Mumbai
Design applications are examined at a single national office at Kolkata and prosecuted electronically, wherever they are filed. The points below set out how the firm conducts a design matter for a client based in Mumbai.
Every design application in India is examined at the Design Wing, Patent Office, Kolkata. An applicant in Mumbai is in the same position as one anywhere else, and filing is done through the CGPDTM portal.
A design matter turns on a novelty search, correctly prepared representations of the article from each view, a defensible statement of novelty, and filing before any disclosure. All of that is document work.
Where a design piracy suit or a cancellation matter requires appearance before a court in Maharashtra, the firm associates local counsel who appears on the record, and continues to conduct the matter itself.
An initial consultation is arranged on request and is held by telephone or video. There is no fee for the initial conversation.
What the firm handles in design matters
- Design searches and registrability advice
- Filing and prosecution of design applications
- Cancellation and infringement proceedings
- Coordinated protection across patents, designs and trade dress
What can and cannot be registered as a design
A design must be new or original and must not have been disclosed to the public anywhere before the filing date. India gives no general grace period for the applicant’s own disclosure.
Requirements for registration
Sections 2(d) and 4, Designs Act, 2000
- Features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation or composition of lines or colours applied to an article
- Applied to an article by any industrial process, and judged solely by the eye
- New or original — not previously published in India or in any other country, and not in prior public use
- Significantly distinguishable from known designs or combinations of known designs
- Not contrary to public order or morality
What is excluded
Sections 2(d) and 4, Designs Act, 2000
- Any mode or principle of construction, and anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device
- Features of shape or configuration dictated solely by the function the article has to perform
- A trade mark, a property mark, or an artistic work as defined in the Copyright Act, 1957
- Designs already published or publicly used anywhere before the date of application
- Mere trade variants of a known design
Prior publication is the single most common reason a design is refused or later cancelled, and the disclosure that defeats it is usually the applicant’s own — a product page, a catalogue, a trade fair, a social media post, a crowdfunding listing. The application should be filed before the article is shown to anyone outside a confidentiality obligation.
The fifty-article rule — where design and copyright collide
Every product design begins as a drawing, and a drawing is an original artistic work in which copyright subsists automatically. Businesses commonly assume that copyright is enough, and that registering the design is an optional refinement. For anything made industrially, it is not.
Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides that copyright in a design which is capable of being registered under the Designs Act, 2000, but which has not been so registered, ceases as soon as any article to which the design has been applied has been reproduced more than fifty times by an industrial process by or with the licence of the owner.
The consequence is severe and it is often discovered only when a competitor copies the product. A manufacturer who never registered the design, and who has made more than fifty units, has no copyright in the design as applied to the article and no design right either, because design rights only exist on registration. The remedies that remain — passing off, or an action on the trade dress — are harder and slower.
The practical rule that follows is simple: if an article is going to be manufactured in any quantity, the design should be registered before production begins, and certainly before the fifty-first article is made.
Documents required to file
- Representations of the article — views from each side, together with perspective views, prepared to the prescribed standard
- Form 1, stating the name, address and nationality of the applicant
- The article and the class under the Locarno Classification
- A statement of novelty, identifying precisely what is claimed as new — in the shape, the configuration, the surface pattern, or the ornamentation
- A disclaimer where the representations show a trade mark, word, letter or numeral not claimed as part of the design
- Power of attorney in Form 21, where an agent or advocate is appointed
- Priority document, where priority is claimed from a corresponding application in a Convention country
The statement of novelty is the part that repays care. It defines what the registration actually monopolises, and a statement drawn too broadly invites cancellation while one drawn too narrowly leaves the design easy to design around.
How an application proceeds
- 01 Novelty search
A search of the design register and of the market to assess whether the design is new or original, and whether anything published would defeat it. Because prior publication anywhere in the world is fatal, the search is not confined to India.
- 02 Prepare representations and the statement of novelty
The article is depicted from each required view, and the statement of novelty is drafted to identify what is claimed. This defines the scope of the eventual right.
- 03 Filing
The application is filed in Form 1 with the representations, at any of the four patent offices or through the e-filing portal. The filing date is the date accorded to the application, and it is the date against which novelty is judged.
- 04 Examination at Kolkata
The Design Wing at Kolkata examines the application for novelty, for whether the subject matter is a registrable design, and for compliance in the representations and the statement of novelty. Objections are communicated in an examination report.
- 05 Reply and hearing
The applicant replies to the objections. Where they are not resolved on the papers, the Controller may fix a hearing, ordinarily conducted by video conference.
- 06 Registration and publication
On acceptance the design is registered and published in the Patent Office Journal. Registration is a precondition to any design right — there is no unregistered design right in India.
- 07 Extension of the term
The initial term is ten years from the date of registration. It may be extended by a further five years on an application made before the expiry of the initial period, under Section 11(2). The extension cannot be applied for late.
Design, patent, copyright or trade mark — which fits
A single product often attracts more than one right, and the rights protect different things. Choosing only one is usually a mistake.
| Right | What it protects | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Registered design | The appearance of the article — shape, pattern, ornamentation, judged by the eye | Ten years, extendable by five |
| Patent | How the article works — a new product or process with an inventive step | Twenty years from filing |
| Copyright | The original drawing as an artistic work, subject to the fifty-article rule in Section 15(2) | Life of the author plus sixty years |
| Trade mark | The shape or get-up as an indicator of origin, if it has become distinctive | Ten years, renewable indefinitely |
A design cannot be a trade mark or an artistic work under the Designs Act definition, so the routes are mutually exclusive at the point of registration — but a product’s shape may over time acquire distinctiveness and become registrable as a shape mark under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, which is protection of indefinite duration once the design term has run out.
Government fees for design registration
| Matter | Natural person, startup or small entity | Others |
|---|---|---|
| Application for registration of a design (Form 1) | ₹1,000 | ₹4,000 |
| Extension of the term of copyright in a design (Form 3) | ₹2,000 | ₹8,000 |
| Petition for cancellation of registration (Form 8) | ₹1,500 | ₹6,000 |
| Request for a certified copy or an extract from the register | As prescribed | As prescribed |
These are the statutory fees payable to the Patent Office under the Designs Rules, 2001, as amended, per design per article. They are not the firm’s fees. Riva Legal Associates does not disclose its professional fees on this website; the fee for a particular matter is set out in the engagement letter before work begins. Figures are given for general information and are subject to amendment of the Rules.
After registration — enforcement and cancellation
- Piracy of a registered design is actionable under Section 22 — applying the design, or a fraudulent or obvious imitation of it, to any article in the class in which the design is registered, without the proprietor’s licence.
- The statutory remedy is capped. Under Section 22(2) the contravening party is liable to pay a sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees recoverable as a contract debt, subject to a maximum of fifty thousand rupees in respect of any one design. Where the proprietor elects to sue for damages and an injunction instead, that cap does not apply.
- Registration may be cancelled under Section 19 on grounds including prior registration in India, prior publication anywhere, lack of novelty or originality, non-registrability, and that it is not a design within the meaning of Section 2(d).
- A cancellation ground may also be raised as a defence in an infringement suit under Section 22(3), which means a piracy action always carries the risk of the registration being attacked.
- Extend the term before it expires. The extension under Section 11(2) must be applied for before the initial ten-year period ends; there is no restoration once it has lapsed for failure to extend in time.
Where a design dispute from Mumbai is heard
A suit for piracy of a registered design arising in Mumbai may be instituted before the Bombay High Court, which exercises ordinary original civil jurisdiction, where the valuation exceeds the pecuniary limit fixed for the courts below. Below that limit it is filed before the City Civil Court at Mumbai, sitting as a Commercial Court.
Section 22(4) of the Designs Act, 2000 matters for forum. Where a defendant in a piracy suit raises a ground on which the registration could be cancelled under Section 19, the suit is to be transferred to the High Court for decision. Because attacking the registration is the standard defence, design suits migrate to the High Court in much the same way patent suits do.
A petition for cancellation under Section 19 is made to the Controller, and an appeal from the Controller lies to the High Court. Following the abolition of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board by the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, the appellate functions in design matters are exercised by the High Court. A design suit of a specified value is a commercial dispute under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
The Bombay High Court hears intellectual property matters on its original side, and specialised benches are assigned to them. Dedicated Intellectual Property Division Rules of the kind adopted at Delhi and Madras have been under consideration but are not, at the date of this page, in force at Bombay.
Where design questions commonly arise in Mumbai
Mumbai is India’s financial and commercial capital, and hosts the Reserve Bank of India, both national stock exchanges and the head offices of most Indian banks and insurers. That shapes the design work that comes out of the city.
- Packaging and containers — bottle and container shapes for FMCG and pharmaceuticals, frequently alongside a trade dress claim.
- Jewellery and accessories — a substantial trade centred on the SEEPZ zone, where prior publication risk is high.
- Consumer appliances and electronics — where the appearance of the article is the differentiator.
- Textiles and apparel — surface patterns and prints from a long-established textile trade.
- Furniture and lighting — where the functional-shape exclusion is most often argued.
- Pharmaceutical presentation — blister, dispenser and device housings.
Sector context is set out here to describe the local economy and to indicate where questions of this kind arise. It is not a statement about the firm’s clients or engagements.
Relevant statutory framework
- Designs Act, 2000
- Designs Rules, 2001
- Copyright Act, 1957 — Section 15
- Locarno Classification
- Commercial Courts Act, 2015
- Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021
Frequently asked questions
Where is a design application from Mumbai examined?
At the Design Wing of the Patent Office, Kolkata, which examines design applications for the whole of India. Unlike trade marks and patents, designs have no territorial split. The application may be lodged at any of the four patent offices — for Mumbai that would ordinarily be the Patent Office Branch, Mumbai — or filed electronically, but examination happens at Kolkata in every case.
Is there any protection for an unregistered design in India?
No. There is no unregistered design right in India, in contrast to some other jurisdictions. If the design is not registered there is no design right to enforce, and the owner is left with whatever passing off or trade dress claim the facts support. Registration is not optional protection; it is the protection.
Does showing the product before filing destroy the design?
Usually yes. A design must not have been published or publicly used anywhere in the world before the date of the application. India provides no general grace period for the applicant’s own disclosure. A trade fair, a catalogue, a product page, a crowdfunding listing or a social media post can all amount to publication. The application should be filed first.
How long does a registered design last?
Ten years from the date of registration, extendable by a further five years under Section 11(2) of the Designs Act, 2000, giving fifteen years in total. The extension must be applied for before the initial period expires; there is no restoration afterwards.
Can the same product have both a design registration and a patent?
Yes, and they protect different things. The design registration covers how the article looks; the patent covers how it works. A shape dictated solely by function cannot be a registered design, so where the shape is doing technical work it is the patent that must carry it.
What is the fifty-article rule?
Under Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957, copyright in a design that is capable of registration under the Designs Act, 2000 but has not been registered ceases once more than fifty articles bearing the design have been produced by an industrial process by or with the owner’s licence. A manufacturer relying on copyright in design drawings, who never registered the design, loses that protection at the fifty-first article and has no design right either.
What can be recovered from someone who copies a registered design?
Under Section 22(2) the contravening party is liable for a sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees recoverable as a contract debt, subject to a maximum of fifty thousand rupees for any one design. A proprietor may instead bring a suit for injunction and damages, in which case that statutory cap does not apply. In practice the injunction is usually the object.
Can the firm act in a Mumbai design matter from Jaipur?
Searching, drafting the statement of novelty, preparing representations, filing and prosecution are all conducted electronically before a single national examining office at Kolkata, so this work does not depend on the location of the advocate. Where a piracy suit or a cancellation matter requires appearance before a court in Maharashtra, the firm associates local counsel who appears on the record. The firm’s chambers are in Jaipur.
Riva Legal Associates works from a single chambers in Jaipur, Rajasthan and does not maintain an office in Mumbai. Matters requiring appearance before a court in Maharashtra are handled in association with local counsel.
This page is published for general information about the law and procedure that applies to a business in Mumbai. It is not legal advice, an advertisement, or a solicitation, and it should not be relied upon as a statement of the law applicable to any particular matter. For advice on a specific matter, please contact the firm or consult a qualified advocate.
Other intellectual property matters in Mumbai
Industrial Designs in other cities
The firm accepts matters from clients across India, in association with local counsel where appearance in another state is required.
Discuss a matter in this area
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