Design Registration Application Cover Letter

TO THE CONTROLLER OF DESIGNS The Patent Office, Kolkata Date: [application_date] Subject: Application for registration of a design under the Designs Act, 2000 Sir/Madam, 1. APPLICANT Name : [applicant_name] Address : [applicant_address] Nationality : [nationality] 2. THE DESIGN Article : [article_name] Class : [design_class] [design_description] 3. STATEMENT OF NOVELTY [novelty_statement] 4. The Applicant states that the design is NEW OR ORIGINAL, has not been disclosed to the public anywhere in India or in any other country by publication or by use or in any other way prior to the filing date, is significantly distinguishable from known designs or combinations of known designs, and does not comprise or contain scandalous or obscene matter. 5. PRIOR PUBLICATION [first_publication] 6. The Applicant claims to be the proprietor of the said design and applies for its registration in respect of the article named above. 7. The prescribed fee, representations of the design, and the statement of novelty accompany this application. Yours faithfully, [applicant_name] Through [agent_name] ENCLOSURES 1. Representations of the design — views as prescribed 2. Statement of novelty 3. Power of attorney, where filed through an agent 4. Prescribed fee ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── FILE BEFORE YOU SHOW IT TO ANYONE This is the point on which design applications most often fail, and it is unforgiving. A design must be NEW OR ORIGINAL and must not have been PUBLISHED anywhere before the filing date. Publication includes putting the product on sale, showing it at an exhibition, posting it on social media, listing it on a marketplace, or sending it to a customer without obligations of confidence. Unlike some jurisdictions, India does not offer a general grace period after disclosure. Once a design is out, registrability is usually gone. SO: FILE FIRST, LAUNCH SECOND. If you must show it before filing — to a manufacturer, an investor, a buyer — do so under a written non-disclosure agreement, which keeps the disclosure confidential rather than public. WHAT A DESIGN REGISTRATION COVERS: the APPEARANCE of an article — its shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation, judged by the eye. It does not protect how a thing WORKS. A purely functional feature dictated solely by function is not registrable as a design; that is patent territory. TERM: registration lasts ten years from registration, extendable by a further five on application before expiry. Diarise the extension — it cannot be made afterwards. MARK YOUR PRODUCTS. Where a design is registered, marking the article as registered with the number matters: a proprietor who has not marked may face difficulty recovering damages from an infringer who did not know of the registration. THE REPRESENTATIONS DECIDE THE SCOPE. The views you file define what is protected, so prepare them carefully — inadequate or inconsistent views are a common objection and narrow what you end up with.