Artistic works: Resolving design-copyright overlap

By Omesh Puri, LexOrbis
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One of most controversial provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957, states that copyright in any design that could be registered under the Designs Act, 2000, but has not been so registered will cease when any article to which the design has been applied has been reproduced more than 50 times by an industrial process.

Omesh PuriAssociate partnerLexOrbis
Omesh Puri
Associate partner
LexOrbis

The judgment of a division bench of Delhi High Court in Microfibres Inc v Girdhar & Co & Anr (2009) provided much needed clarity with respect to the conflict between original artistic work as defined under the Copyright Act and design as defined in the Designs Act. It was held that copyright would exist in the original work of art and the author or copyright holder would continue enjoying the longer protection granted under the Copyright Act in respect of the original artistic work.

For example, a famous painting will continue to enjoy the protection available to an artistic work under the Copyright Act. A design created from such a painting for the purpose of industrial application on an article may also be entitled design protection in terms of the provisions of the Designs Act. If the design is registered under the Designs Act, the design would lose its copyright protection under the Copyright Act but the original painting would retain this protection. If the design is registrable under the Designs Act but has not been registered, the design would continue to enjoy copyright protection until the threshold limit of its application on an article by an industrial process 50 times is reached. Once that limit is crossed, it would lose its copyright protection under the Copyright Act.

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Omesh Puri is an associate partner at LexOrbis.

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