Cryogas Equipment Private Limited versus Inox India Limited (Supreme Court) 2025 INSC 483

Framework for distinguishing between works protected under the Copyright Act, 1957, and designs eligible for protection under the Designs Act, 2000

(i) The expression ‘artistic work’ under Section 2(c) of the Copyright Act has a very wide connotation and may also include abstract work(s) comprising a few lines or curves arbitrarily drawn, which could be either two or three-dimensional. It may be clarified that such a work may or may not have any visual appeal. Further, the holder of such an artistic work is entitled to draw protection under Section 14(c) of the Copyright Act, including the exclusive right to reproduce such work in any material form. Such a reproduction may also involve depicting a three-dimension work of a two dimensional work or vice versa.

(ii) However, if such reproduction is done by employing an industrial process, which may be manual, mechanical or chemical, and which results in a finished article that may appeal to the eye, then ‘the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to the article by such an industrial process’, constitutes ‘design’ within the meaning of Section 2(d) of the Designs Act.

(iii) It thus seems that the intent of producing an original artistic work is not determinative of its protection under the Copyright or Designs Regime. Rather, the legislative intent is to harmonise the two Statutes so that while an ‘artistic work’ qualifies for copyright protection, its commercial or industrial application—i.e., the ‘design’ derived from the original work for industrial production— is subject to the limitations set out in Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act. Such a design gets protected only if it is registered under the Designs Act.

(iv) To further simplify, the original artistic work, which initially enjoys copyright protection, does not lose the same merely because a ‘design’ derived from it has been industrially applied to create a product. While the expression ‘artistic work’ has a broad spectrum, ‘design’ is restricted to specific features such as shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation, or composition of lines or colours, applied to an article through an industrial process, resulting in a finished product that appeals to the eye. These visually appealing features, when applied industrially, define a ‘design’ under the Designs Act.

(v) The analysis further reveals that the inquiry cannot be concluded merely by assuming that what does not qualify as an ‘artistic work’, within the meaning of the Copyright Act, would automatically receive protection under the Designs Act. While protection under the Designs Act is not as enduring as that under the Copyright Act, it is not granted by default and requires specific criteria to be met. In this regard, courts in India and globally consistently apply the test of ‘functional utility’ to determine whether a work qualifies for protection under the Designs Act.

(vi) It would therefore be appropriate to espouse the approach already undertaken by the courts in India, as it not only emulates the best practices employed by US courts and the principles enshrined in International Conventions but it also gives due consideration to contemporaneous laws and legislations. A two-pronged approach has been formulated in order to crack open the conundrum caused by Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act so as to ascertain whether a work is qualified to be protected by the Designs Act. This test shall consider: (i) whether the work in question is purely an ‘artistic work’ entitled to protection under the Copyright Act or whether it is a ‘design’ derived from such original artistic work and subjected to an industrial process based upon the language in Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act; (ii) if such a work does not qualify for copyright protection, then the test of ‘functional utility’ will have to be applied so as to determine its dominant purpose, and then ascertain whether it would qualify for design protection under the Design Act.

(vii) The courts, while applying this test, ought to undertake a case specific inquiry guided by statutory provisions, judicial precedents, and comparative jurisprudence. It must be kept in mind that the overarching objective is to ensure that rights granted under either regime serve their intended purpose without unduly encroaching upon the domain of the other. With this approach, we have attempted to clarify the treatment of works at the intersection of ‘copyright’ and ‘design’ law(s), thereby ensuring coherence and consistency in the application of IP rights in India.