DESIGN PORTFOLIO

In consumer electronics, furniture, packaging, jewellery and apparel, appearance is often what makes people buy, and so it is the first thing competitors copy. Design registration in India under the Designs Act, 2000 secures exclusivity over a product's shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours for up to fifteen years. The law is strict on timing: novelty is judged against disclosures anywhere in the world, and a design shown in a catalogue or online before filing may be lost entirely. We advise designers, manufacturers and brands on what to register, when to file and how to enforce.

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Our Design Services

• Registrability assessments and novelty searches before filing.

• Filing strategy, including choice of article, Locarno classification, and the number and grouping of applications.

• Representations prepared from drawings, photographs or CAD files to the Design Office's requirements, by our patent illustration team.

• Ordinary and reciprocity applications, including priority claims from convention countries.

• Examination responses and hearings before the Design Office.

• Extensions securing the full fifteen-year term.

• Cancellation proceedings, both initiating and defending.

• Infringement actions against copies and obvious imitations.

• Advice on overlapping rights across design, copyright, trademark and trade dress.

 

Our Approach

1. Select what merits protection. We review product lines with you to identify designs of real commercial value and real exposure to copying.

2. File before disclosure. Applications are timed against launch calendars, trade shows and catalogue releases so that novelty is preserved.

3. Representations that define the right. Views and the statement of novelty are prepared to mark out the protected features precisely, since they decide the scope of enforcement.

4. Maintain and enforce promptly. Extensions are docketed to secure the full term, and copies are pursued as soon as they appear.

 

Why Choose Khurana & Khurana for Designs

• Strategy across overlapping rights. Copyright in a registrable design is lost once the article is industrially reproduced more than fifty times. We advise on the right combination of design, copyright and trade dress protection for each product.

• In-house illustration. Representations are prepared by our patent illustration team to the Office's standards, reducing formal objections at examination.

• Enforcement experience in fashion and consumer goods. Our work for brands and retailers in counterfeiting and infringement disputes shapes how every registration is framed.

 

Key Information

What can be registered as a design

• The design must be new or original, and not published or used anywhere in the world before filing.

• It must relate to shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours, in two or three dimensions.

• It must be applied to an article by an industrial process and judged solely by the eye.

• It cannot be a mode or principle of construction or a mere mechanical device, a trademark, a property mark or an artistic work.

• It must not be contrary to public order or morality.

 

Types of design application

• Ordinary application: filed without claiming priority.

• Reciprocity application: claims priority from an application in a convention country and must be filed in India within six months. This period cannot be extended.

 

Filing and term

• Applications can be filed at the Patent Office in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata, but all are examined at the Design Office in Kolkata.

• Each application needs Form 1, the name of the article and its Locarno class, clear representations, a statement of novelty and a disclaimer where needed, and a power of attorney if filed through an agent. Reciprocity applications also need the priority document.

• Registration lasts ten years from the date of registration (the filing date, or the priority date if claimed) and can be extended once by five years.

 

Launching a new product soon?

File before the design is shown anywhere. Send us your drawings or photographs at info@khuranaandkhurana.com, and we will tell you what to register.