Why a Button Can Be Patented, But a Heritage Can’t
Culture cannot be patented.
That is what allows Chanel, Dior, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton to use Indian design elements across collections without attribution. Jhumkas, textiles, embroidery. The reference is clear. The credit is not.
So the question is simple:
Why do these brands get to use Indian design without credit?
In digital design, brands are not allowed to use design elements freely without consequences. Ownership is defined. There are legal systems that decide what can be protected and who it belongs to. Specific elements, interactions, and patterns can be claimed. A button, a gesture, even the way something responds on screen can fall under intellectual property.
Using someone else’s design without permission is not just questionable. It can be challenged, restricted, and enforced.
If a company creates a specific way something works on a website, they can claim it. How a page responds, how elements move, how users navigate. If it is new and clearly defined, it can be registered.
That is what makes it enforceable. Once it is registered, others cannot freely copy it. If they do, there are consequences.
This is not just about legal systems. It is also how designers approach their work. As one user on Quora notes, much of UI and UX is shared by default. Patterns repeat, interactions feel familiar, and designers build on what already exists.
Ownership only applies when something is specific enough to be claimed.
Even within Indian law, protection has limits. The Designs Act, 2000 allows a design to be registered only if it is new and tied to a specific creator. It protects form, not origin. Which means cultural designs do not really fit into this system. They are not new. They are not owned by one person. So they remain unprotected.
So the difference is not just about design. It is about what the system chooses to recognize as ownership. In one case, something new can be defined, claimed, and protected. In the other, something that has always existed remains open to use without obligation.
The difference is clear. What is new can be owned. What has always existed cannot.
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