Industrial design in general terms refers to a product’s overall form and function. For instance if a chair is said to have a good design, it would generally refer to its comfort and its appearance. Together with its functional and aesthetic features, other issues like the product’s marketability and the cost of manufacturing, transportation, storage, disposal etc are considered generally by enterprises.

However, from an Intellectual Property law perspective, an Industrial Design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. In other words, the appearance of a chair is taken into account than to its technical and functional features. Therefore, it is the ‘design’ or the aesthetic nature of a finished product that is considered intellectual than the technical and functional nature. The design may be of three-dimensional features (shape and surface of an article) or of two-dimensional features (ornamentation, patterns, lines or colour or a combination of two or more of these).

Industrial designs are applied to vide variety of mass produced as well as individually crafted products like technical and medical instruments, jewellery and luxury items, electrical appliances, cars, architectural structures, textile designs, furniture, toys, household products, sports equipment, product packaging and containers etc.

Note:Registration for Designs is not operational and expected to be started in the near future
Any individual or group of individual can register the design. The Industrial Property Rules 1997 of the Kingdom of Bhutan state “ where the applicant is the creator, the request shall contain a statement to that effect, and, where he/she is not, it shall indicate each creator’s name and address and be accompanied by the statement justifying the applicant’s right to the registration of the industrial design”

The registration can also be done through an agent. If the applicant is represented by an agent, the request shall so indicate and state the agent’s name and address.



As in most countries, in Bhutan too, an industrial design must be registered in order to get protection under Industrial Design Law. The design must be new or original.