Intellectual property

Industrial Designs

Design rights protect how a product looks. In India they are easily lost by showing a design before it is filed.

Registration and enforcement of designs for product shapes, patterns and ornamentation, and, increasingly, screen and app interfaces.

A registered design protects the shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation or composition of lines or colours applied to an article, as judged by the eye. It does not protect how the article works (that is for patents) or a mark of origin (that is for trade marks).

File before you show

A design must be new or original and must not have been published, in India or anywhere else, before the filing or priority date (section 4). There is no general grace period: the only exception covers display at an exhibition notified by the Central Government, after notice to the Controller, if the application is filed within six months of the first display. A product launch, an ordinary trade-fair stand, an Instagram post or a catalogue sent to a distributor can each destroy novelty. Overseas applicants can claim six months’ Paris Convention priority. India is not a party to the Hague Agreement, so designs are protected country by country.

Term and enforcement

Registration lasts ten years from the filing date and can be extended once for five more. Designs are examined at the Patent Office in Kolkata. A registered owner can sue for piracy of the design for an injunction and damages, and the Delhi High Court’s Full Bench held in Carlsberg Breweries v. Som Distilleries (2018) that a passing-off claim can be joined where the shape also works as a badge of origin.

Screens are designs too

Graphical user interfaces and app screens were long refused registration in India. That changed in 2026: see Screens Are the New Shapes, our note on the ruling and the government’s proposals to reform the Designs Act.

How we help

Design searches and novelty opinions
Filing, prosecution and priority claims
GUI and icon design strategy
Cancellation proceedings
Piracy and passing-off actions
Design and trade mark overlap strategy

Key laws

Designs Act, 2000
Designs Rules, 2001 (as amended in 2021)
Locarno Classification

Frequently asked questions

Can I register a design after the product has been launched?

Usually not. A design that has been published in India or elsewhere before the filing or priority date is not new and cannot be validly registered (section 4 of the Designs Act). File first, then show, sell or post the design.

How long does design registration last in India?

Ten years from the date of registration, which is the filing date, extendable once by a further five years, for a maximum of fifteen years.

Can a registered design and a trade mark protect the same shape?

In some cases, yes. The Delhi High Court’s Full Bench held in Carlsberg Breweries v. Som Distilleries (2018) that the owner of a registered design can also sue for passing off where the shape functions as a trade mark, identifying the source of the goods.