Penalties :
A registered proprietor can institute a suit for injunction as well as recovery of damages against any person engaged in piracy of the registered design. Such legal proceedings can be instituted from the date of registration and till the expiry of copyright. However, in case of reciprocity application, the registered proprietor can claim damages only from the actual date on which the design is registered in India.
If any person commits piracy of a registered design, as defined in Section 22, he shall be liable to pay for a payment of a sum not exceeding `25,000/- recoverable as contract debt. However, the total sum recoverable in respect of any one design shall not exceed ` 50,000/-.
The suit for injunction/damages shall not be instituted in any Court below the Court of District Judge. [Section 2(c),11,22.]
In a case between Ampro Food Products v. Ashok Biscuit Works, AIR 1973 AP 17, the appellant manufactured biscuits with AP embossed on them. The respondent also manufactured biscuits with identical design except that letters AB were embossed on them, in place of AP. The suit claimed injunction bringing a charge of piracy of design. Issuing a temporary injunction, the Court held that in such cases the defence cannot argue that the appellant’s registered design was not new or original if no steps had been taken earlier seeking cancellation of the registration of the design.
In a case between Hindustan Lever Ltd. V. Nirma Pvt. Ltd., AIR 1992 Bom 195, the plaintiff alleged infringement of its registered trade mark, passing off, and infringement of the copyrights in original artistic work and sought permanent injunction to restrain the defendant from using the impinged carton in relation to soaps or detergent powder.
The defence took the plea that the said label was in fact a design that could be registered under the Designs Act, and the fact that it was not so registered makes copyrights if any, under the copyright Act non-existent when the article to which the design has been applied was reproduced fifty times by industrial process. The Court ruled that a label to be put on a carton for the goods is not a design.