The registration and protection of industrial designs in India is administered by the Designs Act , 2000 and corresponding Designs Rules , 2001 which came into force on 11th May 2001 repealing the earlier Act of 1911. The Design Rules, 2001 was further amended by Designs (Amendment) Rules 2008 and Designs (Amendment) Rules 2014. The last amendment in Designs Rules came in to force from 30th December, 2014, which incorporates a new category of applicant as small entity in addition to natural person and other than small entity.

The industrial design recognizes the creation new and original features of new shape, configuration, surface pattern, ornamentations and composition of lines or colours applied to articles which in the finished state appeal to and are judged solely by the eye.

The registration and protection of industrial designs in India is administered by the Designs Act , 2000 and corresponding Designs Rules , 2001 which came into force on 11th May 2001 repealing the earlier Act of 1911. The Design Rules, 2001 was further amended by Designs (Amendment) Rules 2008 and Designs (Amendment) Rules 2014. The last amendment in Designs Rules came in to force from 30th December, 2014, which incorporates a new category of applicant as small entity in addition to natural person and other than small entity.

The industrial design recognizes the creation new and original features of new shape, configuration, surface pattern, ornamentations and composition of lines or colours applied to articles which in the finished state appeal to and are judged solely by the eye.

In order to establish a Quality Management System (QMS) in respect of design registration activities, the office of the CGPDTM has acquired ISO 9001:2008 certification for the Design application registration process. The accreditation was awarded by the BSI (British Standard Institution) on 13/04/2015. Currently the certificate is valid up to March, 2018 subject to yearly Continuous Assessment Visit (CAV) audits. The ISO 9001: 2008 certificate has been awarded for the scope of “Protection & maintenance of Industrial Design through registration relating to article of manufacture and any substance under the provisions of Designs Act, 2000.”

An application for Design Registration needs to be filed with the Controller of Designs, The Patent Office at Kolkata. However, the application can also be filed at any of the four branch office of The Patent Office at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Ahmedabad and the application received by the Branch Offices is transmitted to the Head Office for processing.

For filing of applications for registration of design in India, the following procedure needs to be followed: a) Application duly filled in on Form 1 along with the prescribed fees, stating name & full address, nationality of the applicant. If the Applicant is not a natural person the legal status and the place of incorporation. b) Name of the article to which the design is to be applied. c) Class & Sub Class of the article embodying the design is applied under the Locarno Classification. d) Representations illustrating the views of the article wherein the originality lies. The representations can be in the form of photographs or drawing figures showing the perspective, front, rear, top, bottom and side views of the article (2 copies of each view) If the design is to be registered in more than one class, a separate application shall be filed for each class. e) A statement of novelty and disclaimer (if any) in respect of mechanical action, trademark, word, letter, numerals should be endorsed on each representation sheet and should be duly signed and dated. f) When colour combination is the essence of a design as applied to an article, the same shall be clearly depicted in the representation. After examination of the application by the Design Office at Kolkata, objections, if any, are raised thereto. On removal of the objections, the certificate granting copyright in registered design is issued by the Design Office. The duration of the registration of a design is initially ten years from the date of registration but in uses where claim to priority has been allowed, the duration is ten years from the priority date. This initial period of registration may be extended by further period of 5 years on an application made in Form-3 accompanied by a fee of Rs. 2,000/- to the Controller before the expiry of the said initial period of Copyright.