What is Registering of Design ? WHY should I care?
D0 you have an inventor hidden inside you. If you have created an industrial product with a eye catching design and you have started marketing without resigetering the design After a few months u see that someone is selling the product with the same looks… What do u do? Cry? Fight? Don't miss any opportunity to protect your design. You should treat your design in the same way you would treat a physical asset. Many smart businesses identify and value their registered designs, listing them with other assets on their balance sheet.
An industrial design is an intellectual property right that is meant to protect the visual design only and not the functional part of the object/article. The industrial design can consist of a shape, configuration, ornamentation or composition of any pattern or color in form (2-dimensional or 3- dimensional). The design can be made by hand, or by any tool or machine, or by combination also. The design is judged merely by eye, without the help of any other mechanical device.
The design may consist of three-dimensional or two-dimensional features or in both forms.
What is the necessity of taking Design Registration?
The following are the benefits of registration of industrial design application in India
1. The proprietor has exclusive rights on the industrial design application in India.
2. The proprietor can sue for infringement, if required.
3. The industrial design becomes an intellectual property and can also be sold by the proprietor like any other Intellectual Property Right.
4. The popularity of the industrial design is helpful in popularity of the business entity.
Eg: Novelty of design/ Design has been previously registered in for one class of articles and proprietor wants to register it for some other articles in the same class M/S.Whirpool Of India Ltd vs M/S.Videocon Industries Ltd SUIT (LDG) NO. 1675 OF 2012 on 25 July, 2012
In a motion of temporary injunction before the Bombay High Court, Whirlpool alleged that Videocon had infringed and passed off its registered design for its washing machine which had a rectangular shape on one side and a semi-circular shape on the other with a jettisoned panel for the knobs. The Defendant also argued that the Plaintiff itself had two similar designs, and the design involved in this suit was only a minor variation, and therefore neither new nor original. The Court held that in light of Sections 6(3) and (4), the registered design cannot be invalidated even if not novel or published previously. The Court, after rejecting the arguments on invalidity, examined the issues of infringement and passing off based purely on appearance (as is the standard test in the law of designs). Holding that the similarities were more important than any minor differences, the Court held that there was infringement and passing off of the Plaintiff’s design.
Design Registration process
1. An applicant to register the design can file the application in the prescribed form with the prescribed fee in the Design Wing of the Patent office in Kolkatta. The prescribed form should be attached with four copies of representation of the Design.
2. The registry will take the application for examination.
3. The application is notified for objection by the registry. If there is objection the applicant is required to correct the defects and resubmit the application within six months from the official date of filed application.
4. If all the defects in the objection report have been rectified, the application will be accepted and thereafter notified in the journal. If the objections are not rectified a personnel hearing is provided to the applicant after which the controller decides whether the application should be accepted or not.
5. Once the application is accepted it is registered it lasts for a period of 10 years after which it can be renewed
FOR FREE CONSULTATION PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT +91 080-25092470 or MAIL US AT info@myrightslegal.com