Designs

India is a huge promising market due to its sheer size which makes it no stranger to the counterfeit business. The counterfeiting works in various ways and none so easier by infringing and copying designs and visual appearance of products regardless of which market area one is trying to run a business in. A company focused on building its brand’s identity may rely on the visual appearance of its products which may serve as a testament to its legitimacy, efficacy, quality and safety associated with its brand and products. However, the hard work and the effort put in by the creative design team go down the drain when their products are made a mockery of by selling of counterfeits in the Indian and in some cases in the global market as well. This quite often leads to loss of profits and market share for the company. The issue lies in the lack of realization on the part of the company in protecting a product from all aspects rather than investing large sums of money in just getting protection for the technical features of a product and a brand name. IP rights come full circle and provide an overall cushion to inventors with protection of Designs along with Patents, Trademark and Copyrights. Designs as an IP hold an immense value and play a pivotal and decisive role in long term success and sustainability for a company. They can provide the company with an even stronger enforceable right especially in the context of the Indian market. Hence, availing protection for designs enables companies to fill a critical gap left by utility patents in order to protect a manufacturer’s aftermarket. As India looks to go in full digital mode in the near future, it won’t come as a surprise if design protection reaches the top of the priority list of companies.

The Indian government recognizes the value brought by start-ups, MSMEs and other large companies and their contribution to the economy to help it transform into a global force. Keeping this in mind, there have been quite a few amendments in the Design Patent rules. Several litigation rulings by the Indian courts have paved the way for overall improvement and strengthening of the Indian Design landscape. Being a tier 1 IP firm, L S Davar & Co. usually represents these high-profile design litigation cases in courts and learns the best practices from the rulings. On the same lines, L S Davar & Co. keeps track of all the amendments in the Designs Act which is referred to while prosecuting designs in front of the Indian Design Office.

From our year of origin in 1932 till the present, we have average client retention of more than 30 years in design prosecution work. Our clients have been working regularly with our design department for more than 40 years. Presently, our designs department consists of more than 15 attorneys. With an average work experience of more than 10 years, they are from top institutes of India. We understand that the design attorneys need to be consistently prepared to not only keep up with the fast-evolving design ecosystem but also to excel in the field in every way possible. In our endeavour to provide the best services to our customers, we train our design attorneys monthly to further enhance their knowledge base and skills and for a greater understanding of their responsibilities.

Our end to end design-related services include:

• Conducting Design Search and Providing Opinion;
• Handling Design Application filing in India and across the globe;
• Handling design prosecution and design renewals for India, US, and Europe and facilitating prosecution through associates across the globe;
• Handling cancellation of design registration;
• Managing design portfolio in a cost effective manner;
• Handling all types of design litigation cases in various courts of India; and
• Providing a single point of contact for design portfolio management for more than 25 neighbouring countries.

We employ effective strategies for implementing the tools and processes that generate the best results at a fair and transparent cost for your business or organization. We follow well-defined processes within the team as well as the Indian Design Office and are consistently working to reach new heights. We possess the ability to handle voluminous work without compromising an inch on the quality of the delivery levels.