Design Registration
Industrial design is one of categories of intellectual property rights, where the design system focuses on the protection of the aesthetic features of an article derived from its visual appearance. An industrial design must appeal to the eye, but only functional features or technical features of the article are not to be considered. When an industrial design is protected, the owner i.e. registered proprietor, the person or entity is provided with an exclusive right to apply that design to the article which can be produced by any industrial means. A design means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern , ornament or composition of lines applied to any article whether in two dimensional or three dimensional or in both forms by any industrial process or means, whether manual , mechanical or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye., but does not include any mode or principle of construction or any thing which is in substance a mere mechanical device , and does not include any trademark or any artistic work under the copyright law.
The purpose of the designs Act is to protect novel designs devised to be applied to particular articles to be manufactured and marketed commercially. It is not protect principles of operation or invention which, if protectable at all, out to be made the subject-matter of a patent. Thus the primary concern, is what the finished article is to look like and not with what it does and the monopoly provided for the proprietor is effected by according not, as in the case of ordinary copyright, a right to prevent direct reproduction of the image registered as the design but the right, over a much more limited period. A design for shape in which all the features are detected solely by the function which is to be performed by the article to which the shape is applied, and the shape possesses no features beyond those necessary to enable the article fulfill its function is a mere mechanical devise.
A devise is none the less mechanical whether the mechanism with which it is to be used is devised before or after the devise. Primarily the object of the Act is to protect shape not function, and not protect functional shape. The eye to which appeal must be made and the eye which is to judge is not the eye of the court, but the eye of the customer. The purpose of the Act is to preserve the owner of the design the commercial value resulting from customers preferring the appearance of articles which have the design to those which do not have it. The design will, therefore, be calculated to attract the attention of the beholder regardless of whether or not it makes a favorable appeal to him. The Act requires only that features claimed should be features in the finished article. Any person claiming to be proprietor of a design may apply for registration. The registration is valid for ten years from the date of application. The period may be extended by another period of five years.
