Thursday, March 28, 2013

Publication abroad by existence of the design in the records of the Registrar of designs which is open for public inspection cannot be said to be “prior publication”


A divisional Bench of Delhi High Court referred a revision to full bench of Delhi High Court, to consider as to whether an other Divisional Bench of this court in the case of Dabur India Ltd. Vs. Amit Jain & Anr. 2009 (DEL) has correctly held that publication abroad by existence of the design in the records of the Registrar of designs which is open for public inspection cannot be said to be “prior publication” as per the meaning of the term as found in Sections 4(b) and 19(1)(b) of the Designs Act, 2000. The earlier Division Bench had concurred with the view of learned Single Judge of Calcutta High Court in the case of Gopal Glass Works Ltd. Vs. Assistant Controller of Patents & Designs 2006 (Cal.) where it was held that mere publication of designs, specifications, drawings and /or demonstrations by the patent office in a foreign country would not in itself amount to publication for rendering a design registered in India liable to cancellation. 

The Divisional Bench doubted the correctness of the ratio in the judgments in the cases of Dabur India Ltd.  (Delhi 2009) and Gopal Gas Works Ltd. (Kolkata 2006) for having overlooked the provision of Section 44 of the Act which provides that a design which is registered abroad in a Paris Convention country, and to which convention India is a signatory, gets priority over an Indian registered design, provided that the person who gets the designs registered abroad in a Paris convention country, within six months of the date of the application made in the said convention country abroad, applies and gets registration in India, hence the reference order was made to Full Bench.

In Dabur India Ltd. it was held that publication abroad by existence of the design in the records of the Registrar of designs which is open for public inspection cannot be said to be “prior publication” as per the meaning of the term as found in Sections 4(b) and 19(1)(b) of the Designs Act, 2000 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act").

In Gopal Gas Works Ltd.  it was held that that mere publication of designs, specifications, drawings and /or demonstrations by the patent office in a foreign country would not in itself amount to publication for rendering a design registered in India liable to cancellation. 

The Full Bench in order to answer the reference with clarity, the Court framed following issues/aspects to approach the issues/ aspects independently as well as  inter-play and inter-relation of those issues as regards common points:

(i) When Section 19(1) (a) of the Act provides for cancellation of a design registered in India on account of a design previously registered in India, whether the said provision has to be read literally only i.e only a design registered in India can be basis for cancellation of a subsequent design registered in India and not a design registered abroad in a convention country or whether the provision of Section 19(1) (a) takes within its sweep and includes a previous design registered abroad in a convention country for cancellation of a design registered in India. Putting it differently, is a design previously registered abroad in a convention country a ground under Section 19(1) (a) of the Act for cancellation of a design subsequently registered in India. 

(ii) If under Section 19(1)(a) a design registered in a convention country abroad is a ground for cancellation of a design registered in India, is this rule absolute or the rule falls in those circumstances where the design registered abroad is not applied to be got registered India within a period of six months of making of the application in a convention country abroad. Be it noted that the issue of design registered abroad along with its prior publication can be under certain circumstances a basis of cancellation of a design which is registered in India, however, that is the subject matter of Section 19(1)(b) and not 19(1)(a), because the aspect of prior publication is within the subject matter of Section 19(1)(b) as stated in the immediately following issue. 

(iii) If a design registered in a convention country abroad is not a ground for cancellation of a design registered in India under Section 19(1)(a), then, whether the registration abroad entitles cancellation of a design registered in India because the registration abroad conclusively amounts to prior publication as per that expression found in Section 19(1)(b) read with Section 4(b) of the Act.

(iv) What is the meaning of the expression “publication abroad”/“published abroad”, for it then to be argued that on account of such publication abroad, the design registered in India becomes liable to cancellation in terms of Section 19(1)(b) of the Act.

An offshoot of the aforesaid issues (iii) and (iv) above is that whether in all circumstances and all cases, the record of the Registrar of Designs open to public inspection abroad should be held to be prior publication so that on the basis cancellation can be applied under Section 19(1)(b) of the Act for the design registered in India, and if, the record of the Registrar of Designs in a convention country abroad is to be taken as a basis for cancellation of a design registered in India, whether it is an unqualified rule or whether it has to be examined as per the facts of each case that record of the Registrar of Designs in a convention country abroad does or does not amount to prior publication in terms of the expression in Section 19(1)(b) and Section 4(b) of the Act.

Various provisions of the Design Act were referred. Few most relevant of these are

Section 4. Prohibition of registration of certain designs.- A design which-
 (a) is not new or original; or 
 (b) has been disclosed to the public anywhere in India or in any other country by publication in tangible Form or by use or in any other way prior to the filing date, or where applicable, the priority date of the application for registration; or 
(c) is not significantly distinguishable from known designs or combination of known designs; or 
(d) comprises or contains scandalous or obscene matter, shall not be registered.

Section 19. Cancellation of registration
(1) Any person interested may present a petition for the cancellation of the registration of a design at any time after the registration of the design, to the Controller on any of the following grounds, namely:-
 (a) that the design has been previously registered in India; or
 (b) that it has been published in India or in any other country prior to the date of registration; or
 (c) that the design is not a new or original design; or 
 (d) that the design is not registrable under this Act; or
(e) it is not a design as defined under clause (d) of section 2.

The Court concluded the entire discussion as follows:


(i) Existence of a design registered abroad in a convention country is not a ground under Section 19(1)(a) for cancellation of a design registered in India.

(ii) The provision of Section 44 does not have the effect of changing the literal interpretation of Section 19(1)(a) inasmuch as under Section 44, the foreign registered design becomes an Indian registered design, although, the date of registration of the foreign registered design which is registered in India will relate back and have retrospective effect from the date of application first made in the convention country abroad. Once, the foreign registered design becomes registered in India, the very fact that it is an Indian registered design it will be a previously registered design in India, and by virtue of the priority rule the same will be a ground for cancellation of a design subsequently registered in India on an application made after the date of the priority date given of the application made abroad for registration of the design in a convention country.

(iii) The benefit of foreign registered design after its registration in India for seeking cancellation of an Indian registered design under Section 19(1)(a) will only be available if the application for registration in India is made within six months of the date of the application made in the convention country abroad, notwithstanding there may be prior publication in this interregnum six month period.

(iv) In case, the application for registration in India is not made within the statutory permissible period of six months of having made the application abroad, then, the design registered in India in the meanwhile in six months period cannot be cancelled under Section 19(1)(a), though, the foreign registered design owner on proving of prior publication can have an effective defence to the infringement action filed by the Indian registered design owner and which defence against an infringement action is available vide Section 22 relying on the ground of prior publication under Section 19(1)(b) read with Section 4(b) of the Act.

(v) What is publication is essentially a question of fact to be decided as per the evidence led in each case. Existence of a design in the publication record/office of a Registrar of design abroad may or may not depending on the facts of each case amount to prior publication and there would be prior publication only if the prior registered design is made public and has that much necessary clarity as applied to a specific article capable of judged by the visual appearance or the eye of the mind, that by use of the said knowledge and information in the public record of the Registrar of design office, an article can be made using that design which will be a piracy or violation of that design i.e putting it differently unless and until there is complete clarity and understanding to the naked eye or the eye of the mind of the foreign registered design as found in the public record of the Registrar of design qua a specific article, it cannot be said that such public record will amount to prior publication.

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