If you have a business or wish to start a new one, then one of your product’s differentiators and unique things will be its design. The design of products, logos, etc., must be totally different and unique to make people quickly identify your brand. Therefore, design can be one of the identifying tools that need to be protected so that no other person can copy your design. Moreover, in order to protect your design and restrict others from using it, you need to register your design. Otherwise, someone else may copy your mark easily, making it difficult for people to trust your brand. It is essential to understand that the design can be anything, a shape, colour, or design of a product or brand that creates a unique brand. The Designs Act-2000[1] and the corresponding Designs Rules-2001 govern the whole design registration process. In this blog, we will discuss the importance of Design Registration.
What Is A Design?
Before we discuss the importance of Design Registration, let’s know the meaning of a Design. A design can be anything from a three-dimensional to a two-dimensional product. Moreover, whatever attempts you make to create a product look unique such as the packaging, colour, and shape, is called design. Therefore, all such product designing, shapes, sizes, etc., are protected by design registration. Each person has different choices and imagination, and consequently, he thing of creating his products differently. But, there is always a fear that someone else may copy that product design. To safeguard the design, it is important to get design registration so that your design always stays yours.
Importance of Design Registration
Following is the importance of Design Registration:
- Design registration is an important registration while registering the unique shape, size, and colour of the product.
- The rules of Design Registration, 2000 govern the process of registering a design in India. Design registration is protected for a period of ten years which may be extended further for five more years. Design protection is an effective method to safeguard manufacturing and product ideas from copying or duplication in the face of ferocious market competition.
- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conducted a study, and it found that India submitted 65,447 industrial design applications over the past nine years, with 51,225 of those applications being registered. This merely highlights how necessary and advantageous design registration is in aiding company growth and owners’ investment of time and money in protecting their designs.
- The registered design must always be viewed as a resource with a market worth for the company. If a design is filed with the appropriate body, it is acceptable to consider it a company asset. When we refer to “business assets,” we mean items that can be used to settle debts or traded on the open market.
- Any company’s brand performance may be influenced by how the merchandise looks. Therefore, if a product is in style, its aesthetics may be just as essential as its usefulness.
- The owner receives the exclusive right to the product with a specific appearance, stopping your rivals from manufacturing your product and potentially costing you money.
- The ability to sell or lease industrial design is one of its advantages. This means that the proprietor can sell or lease the industrial design to a third party and receive a royalty on their sales if they don’t have the manufacturing capacity or if they urgently need money.
- Additionally, since the industrial design is a component of the product’s look and shape, it will assist you in building trust in terms of a trademark. Additionally, having a solid name will aid you in discouraging others from stealing your ideas. As a result, it will act as a barrier to prevent third parties from imitating your brand.
- Design rights work well for businesses with constantly changing new goods that need to be protected because they are comparatively inexpensive to protect, and the review process is easy and quick.
- Another importance of Design Registration is that it helps to settle design violation cases in fast-moving, dynamic industries like the fashion or FMCG sectors. These rights will grant them quick relief from infringement and safeguard their product’s design in significant domestic and foreign marketplaces.
What Are The Benefits Of Design Registration?
After discussing the importance of Design Registration, now let’s discuss its benefits. Design registration does the work of securing your design. It also comes with a lot of other benefits mentioned below:
- Profit from Investment: Following the registration of a design, the applicant business or group is granted the sole right to commercialize their product. Additionally, it enhances their intangible assets and adds to their inventory of intellectual property. The extra income streams that these assets frequently produce lead to excellent returns on investment.
- Differentiation of Products: The idea and design art that set a registered design apart from others is included with all necessary papers. Due to a flawless business model perspective, this basically provides the design’s owner with a competitive edge in their market.
- Ability to sell-Out: Design owners who file their designs with a particular copyright authority gain the ability to sell out their designs to outside makers. They can take advantage of the lucrative fees the licensee business gives by doing so within the boundaries of their own patent territory.
- Ability to Sue: After a design is formally filed, the proprietor has the right to bring legal action against anyone who copies it. This ensures that the proprietor of the design will be able to maintain their market share by maintaining control over their industrial design or product. As counterfeit goods make up 3.3% of worldwide commerce as of 2019, registering designs enables companies to take legal action against the increasing number of counterfeiters.
- Longer Validity: After ten years, a design registration license can be renewed or prolonged for an additional five years.
- Protection from Plagiarism: The fact that design licensing offers legal security against plagiarism is one of its most significant benefits. This procedure stops other companies from replicating, reselling, spreading, or producing identical copies of their goods.
- Increased Commercial worth: The copyright authority’s filing of the design raises the product’s commercial worth and marketability. This is a result of the better product placement an owner-designed product enjoys in the minds of prospective customers.
Conclusion
The breadth of the Intellectual Property Act’s branches has expanded with its growth, making it simpler for companies to conduct their operations. The design act, in particular, offers significant benefits to companies, such as the exclusive ownership right of designs, which includes the selling and manufacture of products for which designs have been registered. Additionally, filing a design will result in a significant upfront expenditure for the company if it is unique and has marketable potential. Although it is common knowledge that companies with many registered designs in the market have a decent image. In a broader sense, a nation with a large number of designs is seen as more important for registering.
Also Read:
Design Registration And Protection In India
