Industrial Designs

We assist clients in the protection, maintenance, enforcement and commercialization of industrial design rights across multiple jurisdictions, ensuring that product aesthetics are secured and commercially leveraged.

• A design must be new or original. It cannot be registered if it is the same as a design registered in Pakistan or published anywhere in the world before the application date, or differs from it only in immaterial details or common trade variants (section 3(2)).
• Designs that do not significantly differ from known designs or combinations of design features are not new or original.
• Grace period: a disclosure in the 12 months before the filing or priority date is disregarded only if it resulted from the applicant's (or predecessor's) own acts or from an abuse by a third party (section 3(3)).
• Features dictated solely by technical and functional considerations, and methods or principles of construction, are not designs (section 2).

Industrial design protection is governed by the Registered Designs Ordinance, 2000 and the Registered Designs Rules, 2023, and administered by the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan.

Registration grants the proprietor exclusive rights to prevent unauthorized reproduction or imitation of the registered design.

• Term: 10 years from the date of registration, extendable for two further periods of 10 years (section 7)
• Pakistan follows a single-design per application system
• No “design patent” regime exists, protection is available only through design registration

The following types of designs may be protected:

• Three-dimensional designs – shape, configuration, surface form
• Two-dimensional designs – patterns, lines, ornamentation, colours
• Applied designs – designs applied to industrial or manufactured articles

Not registrable:

• features dictated solely by technical or functional considerations
• designs lacking novelty or originality
• designs previously disclosed to the public

Pakistan does not recognize independent protection for unregistered industrial designs.

Unlike some jurisdictions, there is no separate unregistered design right, and protection is primarily available through registration.

However, in limited cases, elements of a design may be indirectly protected under other legal principles (such as passing off or copyright), depending on the facts.