An original drawing, sketch or model is protected by copyright automatically. The same drawing turned into a manufactured product can fall out of copyright after 50 reproductions under Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957. From that point the protection is supposed to come from the Designs Act, 2000 — if you filed in time. If you did not, the work is essentially in the public domain.
This piece walks through the design-versus-copyright boundary in Indian IP law, when each applies, and the filing sequence that protects both.
Copyright in Indian IP
Section 13 of the Copyright Act, 1957 protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings. Artistic works include paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, photographs and works of architecture. Protection arises automatically on creation and lasts 60 years after the author’s death.
For product designs, the original drawing or model is an ‘artistic work’ under Section 2(c). Copyright protects the drawing itself.
Section 15 — the cut-off rule
Section 15 of the Copyright Act creates an important boundary:
- Section 15(1) — copyright does not subsist in any design registered under the Designs Act
- Section 15(2) — copyright in any design that is capable of being registered under the Designs Act, but has not been so registered, ceases as soon as any article to which the design has been applied has been reproduced more than 50 times by an industrial process by the owner of the copyright
The intent: products that are industrially manufactured should be protected under the Designs Act regime, not the much longer copyright regime. The cut-off forces design-registrable works into the design system after 50 reproductions.
50 reproductions. After that, the unregistered design is no longer your protected work.
Designs Act protection
The Designs Act, 2000 protects the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to any article by any industrial process. Filing is on Form-1 with the prescribed fee — ₹1,000 for individuals/startups/MSMEs, ₹4,000 for others. Protection is 10 years extendable by 5.
Critical: design protection only works if filed before public disclosure. Section 4 makes prior publication a ground for refusal.
The filing sequence
For a designer creating a product that will be manufactured:
- Create the design. Copyright vests automatically.
- Before any public disclosure — file a design registration under the Designs Act, 2000 for any industrially manufacturable features.
- Optionally register the copyright in the original drawings/models. Useful for the period before manufacturing begins, and for non-industrial aspects (book illustrations, posters, packaging artwork that is not industrially applied).
- Manufacture and sell. Section 15(2) cut-off concern is now mitigated because design protection is in place.
What falls under which
Designs Act applies
- Product shapes (a bottle, a chair, a lamp form)
- Surface patterns on industrial products (carpet patterns, fabric prints meant for mass production)
- Ornamentation on packaging (where the packaging is industrially produced)
- Footwear designs, jewellery shapes, accessory forms
Copyright applies
- Original paintings, sculptures, photographs (not industrially reproduced)
- Book illustrations, posters, advertisement creatives
- Website and app UI artwork
- Logo and brand artwork (with trademark layered on)
- Animated content, films, audio
Designing a product for manufacture? File the design before the first 50 units ship. The window is genuinely closing.
WhatsApp our team →Mixed cases
Many real-world products straddle both regimes. A textile pattern may be both an artistic work (drawing) and a design (industrially applied). A piece of jewellery has both a sculptural element (copyright) and a functional ornamental form (design). A logo can have copyright as artistic work and trademark protection — but if applied industrially as a surface pattern on goods, design registration may also be needed.
The practical resolution: file in every category where protection is meaningful. The cost of additional filings is small. The cost of relying on one regime that turns out not to apply is large.
Microcase: textile prints
An Indian textile designer creates an original pattern. Copyright vests on creation. The designer sells the pattern as fabric — mass-produced by a mill. After 50 metres of fabric are produced and sold, Section 15(2) cuts off copyright unless a design registration was filed before that point. The fix: file the design under the Designs Act before commercial production starts. Then both protections run in parallel during the early reproductions, and design takes over once the 50-reproduction threshold passes.
The takeaway
Copyright and design registration cover related but different territory. Section 15 of the Copyright Act creates a hard boundary at 50 industrial reproductions for designs that are capable of being registered. The right filing sequence is design registration before public disclosure, copyright registration alongside, and trademark layered on for branded elements. For Indian designers, product brands and manufacturers, missing the design filing is the single most common protection gap. File the design, file the copyright, and file the trademark — three filings that together close the protection map for most consumer products.
Your brand is only yours when you file it.
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