Ever wondered what fashion designers or product designers do to safeguard their design? The answer is simple they get their Design protected under the Design Act 2000. Now, not everything can be registered under the Design Act, according to Design Act, a Design refers to any article in two or three-dimensional forms (or both) which comprises the features of shapes, patterns, ornamentation, or composition of colors and lines such as cutlery, dress, rocking chair, bottle, apple Ipod etc. The important purpose of design Registration is to see that the creator, the originator of a design having an aesthetic that is not dispossessed of his bonafide reward by others applying it to their goods.

Design registration does not apply to any items that are covered under the Trademark or Copyright Act. For e.g. stamps, labels, tokens or cards can’t be registered under the Design Act as the ornamentation is removed and it ceases to be referred to as an article. Articles must have their existence independent of the Design applied to them.