Design Registration in India: Process, Fees, Documents and Protection under the Designs Act,
2000
Design registration protects what your product looks like: its shape, configuration, pattern or
ornament as applied to an article made by an industrial process. You file
Form 1 with the Indian Patent Office (the Designs Registry at IP India), pay
₹1,000 if you are a natural person, startup or small entity or ₹4,000 otherwise, and get ten
years of protection under the Designs Act, 2000, extendable by five. The condition that catches
most founders is novelty: if the design has been shown, sold or published anywhere before you
file, you may lose the right to register it.
Government Fee
₹1,000 or ₹4,000
Protection
10 Years, Extendable by 5
Key Takeaways
A registered design protects appearance only. Function and construction are for
patents.
File before launch. Disclosure in India or abroad before the filing date can
destroy novelty, and that includes a marketplace listing or a social media
post.
Government fee: ₹1,000 per design for natural persons, startups and small entities,
and ₹4,000 for others, under the Designs (Amendment) Rules, 2021.
Protection runs for 10 years from registration and can be extended once by 5 years
(15 in total) with Form 3.
Pirating a registered design carries a statutory sum of up to ₹25,000 per
contravention, capped at ₹50,000 per design, or you can sue for damages and an
injunction instead.
What a registered design protects
Under Section 2(d) of the Designs Act, a design means the features of shape, configuration,
pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to an article, in two or three
dimensions, that appeal to and are judged solely by the eye in the finished article. The article
must be made by an industrial process.
It does not cover the way a product works, a mere mechanical device, a trademark or property
mark, or an artistic work as defined in the Copyright Act, 1957. A bottle's contour, a lamp's
silhouette, a wallpaper pattern, a phone case's shape and a shoe sole's tread pattern all
qualify. A leak-proof cap mechanism belongs to patent law instead.
Eligibility criteria for registration of design under the Designs Act 2000
You must be the proprietor: the creator, or someone who acquired the design by assignment, or
the person for whom it was created for consideration. The design must also clear Section 4,
which bars registration if any of the following is true.
| Ground for refusal |
What it means in practice |
| Previously registered in India |
Someone has already registered it |
|
Published in India or any other country before the filing date (or priority
date)
|
Your own launch, listing or exhibition can count |
|
Not significantly distinguishable from known designs, or a mere combination of
known designs
|
Small tweaks to an existing product rarely pass |
| Contains scandalous or obscene matter |
Refused outright |
Where you have already filed abroad, India allows you to claim priority if you apply within six
months of the first foreign filing, under the Convention provisions of the Act.
File before you launch: the novelty trap
Founders and e-commerce sellers often lose rights through ordinary activity. These count as
publication: a product page on your website, a marketplace listing, a trade-fair display, a
catalogue sent to buyers, a reel showing the product, a sale to a customer. The Act contains a
limited allowance for notified exhibitions, but treat it as a narrow exception and take advice
before you rely on it.
The practical rule is simple. Finish the design, file the application, and
only then release photos and samples.
Industrial design registration process in India, step by step
1
Check novelty
Search the IP India design database and the web, including marketplaces, for similar
designs. Ask whether anything already out there looks close.
2
Pick the class
Identify the Locarno class for your article (see below).
3
Prepare the representations
Take clear, sharp views of the article: perspective, front, back, sides, top and bottom
as needed. Use a plain background and keep marks, logos and descriptive text out of the
images.
4
Write the statement of novelty
Say in a sentence or two what is new, for example that the novelty lies in the shape and
configuration of the article as shown.
5
Open an IP India e-filing account
The online filing portal is the route for applications. A Class 3 DSC is commonly used
for signing, and the portal's instructions say what your filing needs.
6
File Form 1 with the fee
One application covers one design in one class. If you claim startup or small-entity
status, file Form 24 with proof.
7
Examination
An examiner checks formalities and novelty. If objections come, you reply within the
period stated in the report. If they stand, the Controller can hear you.
8
Registration and publication
Once objections are cleared, the design is registered, published in the Designs Journal
and the certificate is issued.
9
Track and renew
Follow the status and renew before year ten.
Documents required for design registration on the IP India portal
| Item |
Detail |
| Applicant details |
Name, address and nationality; for a company, the exact registered name
|
| Form 1 |
The application, with the fee |
| Representations |
Clear views of the article in the required format |
| Statement of novelty |
Short statement of what is new |
| Class and article title |
The Locarno class and a plain name for the article |
| Form 24 plus proof |
Only if you claim startup or small-entity status, for example a DPIIT
recognition certificate or an Udyam certificate
|
| Power of attorney |
If an agent files on your behalf |
| Priority document |
If you claim priority from a foreign filing |
| Assignment or proof of title |
If you are not the original creator |
Design registration fees and government charges for startups
According to the Designs (Amendment) Rules, 2021 and published fee schedules, the official
charges are:
| Item |
Natural person, startup or small entity |
Others |
| Application for registration (Form 1) |
₹1,000 |
₹4,000 |
| Renewal for the extra five years (Form 3) |
₹2,000 |
₹8,000 |
| Restoration of a lapsed design (Form 4) |
₹1,000 plus an additional fee |
₹4,000 plus an additional fee |
A startup recognised
by the competent authority under Startup India, or an MSME as a small entity, pays the lower
fee, a 75% reduction from the large-entity rate. Claiming the status wrongly can invalidate the
filing and trigger penal consequences, so file Form 24 only with real proof. Fee schedules
change, so check the current table on the IP India website before you pay. Professional fees are
separate and depend on the provider.
Classification of goods for design registration under the Locarno Agreement
India classifies articles under the Locarno Classification, an international system administered
by WIPO that sorts goods into 32 classes. Examples include Class 2 (clothing), Class 6
(furnishing), Class 9 (packages and containers), Class 11 (articles of adornment), Class 14
(recording and communication equipment) and Class 26 (lighting apparatus). Getting the class
right matters, because an application covers one class and the Controller decides disputes on
classification. If your product spans two classes, such as a speaker with a decorative stand,
you may need separate applications. See WIPO's Locarno Classification page to look up your
article.
Difference between patent registration and design registration
| Point |
Design registration |
Patent registration |
| What it protects |
Visual appearance of an article |
A new invention, such as a product or process |
| Governing law |
Designs Act, 2000 |
Patents Act, 1970 |
| Core test |
New or original, not previously published, distinguishable
|
Novel, inventive step and industrially applicable |
| Term |
10 years, extendable by 5 |
20 years from filing |
| Cost and speed |
Lower fees, generally faster |
Higher fees, longer examination |
| Example |
The shape of a water bottle |
A new insulation mechanism inside the bottle |
You can hold both for the same product. A bottle with a distinctive shape and a novel closing
mechanism could carry a design registration and a patent. For the product's name and logo, a
trademark is the matching tool.
Validity period of design registration and renewal process
A registered design gets ten years of protection from the date of registration, under Section
11. Before those ten years run out, you can extend by five more years by filing Form 3 with the
fee, giving a maximum of 15 years. If you miss the date, a lapsed design can be restored through
Form 4 within one year, with an additional fee. Diarise the renewal date the day the certificate
arrives.
There is another reason to register. Under the Copyright Act, copyright in a design that you
apply to an article reproduced more than fifty times by industrial process can cease, unless the
design is registered under the Designs Act. Registration keeps your protection intact.
Design piracy remedies and legal protection in India
Section 22 makes it unlawful, without the registered proprietor's licence, to apply the
registered design or an obvious or fraudulent imitation to articles in the same class for sale,
or to import, publish or expose such articles for sale.
Your remedies for design piracy are:
Statutory sum. Up to ₹25,000 per contravention, recoverable as a
contract debt, with a ceiling of ₹50,000 for any one design.
Suit for damages and injunction. As an alternative, you sue for
damages and an injunction to stop the infringement. If you take this route, you give
up the contract-debt option.
Forum. Suits under this section are not heard below the District
Court.
An infringer will often respond by seeking to cancel your registration under Section 19, so a
registration that rests on a properly searched, genuinely new design is much harder to knock
down. An unregistered design gets no protection under the Designs Act, though remedies such as
passing off may exist under other laws.
Design registration status check online with application number
Use the design search and status facility on the IP India portal and enter your application
number. The status shows whether the application is pending examination, objected, registered or
published. Keep your application number safe, since it identifies the file in every later step.
For the Act itself, see India Code.
Keep the owning business in order
Register the design in the name of the entity that will own the business. If you have not formed
one yet, see
Private Limited Company Registration
first, so the design is not left in a founder's personal name. If the design later moves to a
company or LLP, you will need a written assignment.
In our view, a registered design is only as safe as the entity that owns it. A company that
stops filing risks being struck off, and that creates trouble over who owns its assets. Keep
ROC Annual Return Filing Online
up to date for a company, or
LLP Annual Compliance Online
for an LLP. If you sell through marketplaces, you will also need a GSTIN; see
GST Registration Online.
Get your design registered with LegalDev India
A design filing is won or lost on the groundwork: a proper prior-art search, the right class,
clean representations and a filing made before launch. The LegalDev India IP & Legal Compliance
Team includes experienced Patent and Trademark Attorneys, CAs and CSs who have registered more
than 2,000 industrial designs across India. We search, classify, prepare the representations,
claim startup or small-entity fees where you qualify, file on the IP India portal, respond to
objections and handle renewals.
Send us photos or drawings of your product and tell us when you plan to launch, and we will tell
you whether it looks registrable and what it will cost before you commit. Begin at LegalDev India
India.
Frequently asked questions
Got questions? Find clear answers from our IP & legal compliance team:
It is registration under the Designs Act, 2000 of the visual appearance of an
article, which gives you exclusive rights over that look for ten years, extendable
to fifteen.
The proprietor of the design: its creator, an assignee, or the person who
commissioned it for consideration. Individuals, startups, small entities and
companies can all apply.
₹1,000 per design for a natural person, startup or small entity and ₹4,000 for
others, plus professional fees.
It depends on examination and any objections. Design applications are generally
quicker than patents, but timelines vary.
It is risky. A sale or publication before filing can defeat novelty. File before
launch.
No. File separately for each class.
A logo or brand name is protected as a trademark, not as a design.
A design protects appearance, while a patent protects how an invention works.
Ten years from registration, extendable by five years with Form 3.
You can restore a lapsed design within one year through Form 4, with an additional
fee.
Claim the statutory sum under Section 22 or sue for damages and an injunction.
Not by law, but a search and well-drawn representations make a difference to
approval.
Use the IP India portal's design status facility with your application number.
Yes. Recognised startups and small entities pay the lower fee after filing Form 24
with proof.
An article can include a part that is capable of being made and sold separately. Ask
your adviser whether your part qualifies.