Introduction
The British era is where the Design Act first appeared. The Patent and Designs Act of 1872 was the first law to protect designs. To safeguard industrial designs and to provide inventors rights, the governor general of India passed the Act of 1859, which this Act supplemented. The Inventions and Designs Act of 1888 superseded the Patent and Design Act of 1872. In certain respects, the Act of 1888 was comparable to the Designs Act of the United Kingdom. In 1911, the British government passed a new law called the Patent and Designs Act, repealing all previous laws. In 1930, this Act underwent additional amendments, and the government changed the registration procedure for designs, replacing the notion of fresh and original design with the idea or concept of new or original design.
This law used to regulate matters pertaining to both patents and designs. The Patent Act was passed in 1970 to address the specifically patent-related issues. All patent-related sections from this Act were removed, but it nevertheless dealt with industrial designs until 2000. Following India's 1995 WTO membership, the Patents and Designs Act of 1911 was repealed, and on May 11, 2001, the Designs Act, 2000, was passed in accordance with TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), bringing the nation's design laws up to par with those of other nations.
Meaning of Design Under The Designs Act, 2000
According to section 2 (d) of the Design Act, 2000, "design means" only the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation, or composition of lines or colours applied to any article, whether in two or three dimensions or in both forms. These may be applied by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical, or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeals to and is judged solely by the eye, but does not include any mode or principle of construction or anything that is a mere mechanical device and does not include any trademark as defined in the Trade Marks Act or any artistic work as defined in section 2(c) of the Copyright Act, 1957.
Features of The Designs Act, 2000
The Locarno categorization, which is based only on the subject matter of design, was introduced under the Act of 2000. The material used to create the design was the basis for the classification under the previous regulations. A design that was absent from the previous Act may be reinstated under the new law. It is now possible to restore and reinstate a design's registration. The new Act allows district courts to refer matters to higher courts with jurisdiction, but only when someone is contesting the legitimacy of a registration. Laws pertaining to the replacement of the application prior to the registration of the design are clearly mentioned in the new enactment. Additionally, a registered design's two-year concealment is lifted. When the design is physically brought into the realm of public records, the registration is finally taken into account. The records are available for anybody to see and obtain a certified copy of the same. In order to control anti-competitive behavior in contractual licenses, the new act includes provisions for avoiding specific restrictive requirements.
Conclusion
A design is protected only if it is new and original. A design refers to features of shape that appeal to the eye and should be judged solely by the eye and not by any functional considerations. In order to get the design registered, it must be both new and original and not previously published. The protection given by the act encourages creativity and also helps to protect the interest of the consumers as well as manufacturers. Under intellectual property, industrial design only protects the physical appearance of an article.
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