These are understandable questions that are actually very common. Thankfully, there are ways that you can protect your Designs in India and across the world as long as it meets certain requirements. Please read on to see how this is all possible.

If you have any kind of product either in the Design phase or already in production, you might want to consider protecting its visual or aesthetic features. An Industrial Design is a kind of Design right that is used to protect the visual aspects of a product. Namely, this will be the shape, pattern, colouring, or anything else distinguishable that makes it unique to anything else currently in the public domain.

Though, it is similar to that of a Patent, it is only for the non-functional Design of a product, the visual parts. So it cannot be used against any moving mechanical parts that might make up a product’s Design.

It can be seen that in today’s competitive world where Industrial houses, flood the market with a wide ranging array of products, the cutting edge lies in the aesthetically shaped and contoured product Design which has the capability to carve out a niche in the preference of products among customers’ minds. One can see very many consumer durable products that are successful in the market, owe a great deal to the sleek and delicately shaped external surfaces of the articles apart from the technology which has been utilized to make such products, which of course is critical for the long sustained good will in the minds of the customers. Today one can see many business / Industrial houses, spending considerably for styling’ of the end products, to suit them to the highly aesthetic tastes of the customers.

An Industrial Design can be filed for any product that can be manufactured Industrially and commercialized. There may be certain restrictions as per the Indian Designs Act 2000, for preventing Design features that have the potential to cause harm unrest by hurting of religious sentiments, scandalous and obscene. The basic requirement for seeking an Industrial Design right is that the product for which Industrial Design is sought for should be novel and unique and must not have been featured in public domain prior to the application for Design has been made. The Patent Office, Kolkata, which has a separate wing for Industrial Designs, is the nodal body for receiving applications, prosecution and examination and Grant of Industrial Designs in India. Any person desirous of seeking Industrial Design must apply with proper format with appropriate fees applicable with representation sheets and statement for disclaimers etc., to the Indian Patent Office, Designs Wing, Kolkata.

Hence, it must be clearly understood that such products, which enter into the market with great deal of investment behind the styling MUST be protected as Industrial Designs to hold the Intellectual Property behind such Designs with the Creator of the Design. Otherwise, the Designs created quite painstakingly with much efforts and money may be subjected to plagiarism and copying resulting in heavy loss in business for the original Creator of the Designed product.