Designs Act, 1911

2. Definitions

In this Act unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context :      

(1) Omitted by Patents Act 1970;

(2) "article" means any article of manufacture and any substance, artificial or natural or partly artificial and partly natural;

(3) "Controller" means the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trade Marks appointed under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1958; 

(4) "copyright" means the exclusive right to apply a design to any article in any class in which the design is registered;

(5) "design" means only the features of shape configuration patterns or ornament applied to any article by any industrial process or means whether manual mechanical or chemical separate or combined which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye; but does not include any mode or principle of construction or anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device and does not include any trade mark as defined in clause (v) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1958 or property marks as defined in section 479 of the Indian Penal Code;  

(6) [Omitted by Patents Act 1970]

(7) "High Court" means -

(a) in relation to a State the High Court for that State;   

(b) in relation to the Union territory of Delhi the High Court of Delhi ;         

(c) in relation to the Union territory of Arunachal Pradesh or Mizoram the Gauhati High Court the High Court of Assam, Nagaland Meghalaya Manipur and Tripura;        

(d) in relation to the Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands the High Court at Calcutta; and

(e) in relation to the Union territory of Lakshadweep the High Court of Kerala       

(ee) in relation to the Union Territory of Chandigarh the High Court of Punjab and Haryana;      

(f) in relation to the Union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Goa Daman and Diu the High Court at Bombay;       

(g) in relation to the Union territory of Pondicherry the High Court at Madras 

(8) [Omitted by Patents Act 1970]     

(9) "Legal representative" means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person

(10) and (11) [Omitted by Patents Act 1970] 

(12) "patent office" means the patent office referred to in section 74 of the Patents Act 1970;

(13) "prescribed" includes prescribed by rules under this Act; and

(14) "proprietor of a new or original design" -

(a) where the author of the design for good consideration, executes the work for some other person means the person for whom the design is so executed; and

(b) where any person acquires the design or the right to apply the design to any article either exclusively of any other person or otherwise means in the respect and to the extent in and to which the design or right has been so acquired the person by whom the design or right is so acquired; and

(c) in any other case means the author of the design;  

and where the property in or the right to apply the design has devolved from the original proprietor upon any other person includes that other person.

Comment: The fundamental principle of Patent Law is that a patent is granted only for an invention that must be new and useful. That is to say, it must have novelty and utility. M/s. Bishwanath Prasad Radhey Shyam v. M/s. Hindustan Metal Industries. AIR 1982 SUPREME COURT 1444

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