After nearly two decades of negotiations, the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the landmark Design Law Treaty (DLT). By signing the Final Act of the Riyadh Design Law Treaty, India builds on its progress and reaffirms its commitment to fostering inclusive growth and ensuring equitable access to intellectual property protection.

The treaty seeks to harmonise the procedural frameworks for industrial design protection, improving the efficiency and accessibility of registration processes across multiple jurisdictions. By standardising procedural requirements, the DLT reduces administrative burdens, thereby promoting global creativity in design. Its goal is to ensure that the benefits of streamlined design protection are accessible to all stakeholders, with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups, and independent designers.

The DLT introduces several key provisions aimed at benefiting design applicants, including relaxed time limits, the reinstatement of lost rights, the option to correct or add priority claims, simplified procedures for recording assignments and licenses, and the option to file multiple designs in a single application. These changes provide greater flexibility for design applicants. Furthermore, the treaty encourages contracting parties to work towards implementing electronic industrial design systems and facilitating the electronic exchange of priority documents. When combined with initiatives like the Startup India program and the Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme, these provisions will help empower startups and SMEs to secure design rights globally, boosting their competitiveness and supporting market growth.

India, with its rich heritage of creativity and craftsmanship, has long recognized the crucial role of design in driving sustainable economic development. The country’s policy emphasis on design protection as a catalyst for innovation has delivered impressive results. Over the past decade, design registrations in India have tripled, with domestic filings increasing by 120 per cent in the last two years alone. Notably, design applications grew by 25 per cent last year.