Vikas Jain’s Design Appeals Beyond The Eye: Registration Not A Prima Facie Right.

The law of Designs incorporated in the Designs Act, 2000, lays down four essential requirements to qualify for Design registration. The requirements to be satisfied to facilitate registration as a design include:

1. The Design should be a feature of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament, or composition of lines or colour;
   
   
2. The Design should be "Applied";
   
   
3. Application should be to an "Article"; and
   
   
4. The design should appeal to and be judged solely by the eye.
   
   

The "appeal to the eye" test is perhaps most crucial in deciding design piracy matters. Dwelling on this aspect is the case of Vikas Jain v. Aftab Ahmad and Ors. [2008(37) PTC 288 (Del.)]