The Next Phase of Design Protection: Insights into Proposed Changes

Earlier in January 2026, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released a Concept Note outlining proposed amendments to the Designs Act, 2000. While suggestions and comments were sought from stakeholders, the proposals are yet to have their legislative form and await enactment. Meanwhile, let’s understand with the help of this article what all changes are expected for the next phase of design protection in India.

Protection of Virtual Designs

Amendment to certain definitions have been proposed, including "design" and "article". This aims at enabling the protection of virtual designs, independent of any physical carrier.

The definition of "design" is proposed to be expanded by broadening the scope and meaning of "industrial process" and by expressly including animation, movement, and transition, to cover dynamic visual effects.
The proposed definition of "article" proposes to expressly cover items in physical or non-physical form, including graphical user interfaces (GUIs), icons, graphic symbols, typefaces, augmented reality graphical user interfaces, and other virtual products provided under the Locarno classification.
Further amendments are proposed to infringement-related provisions, to give effect to the protection of virtual designs. The proposals aim to decouple design protection from the requirement of physical embodiment and extend it to virtual, augmented, and immersive digital environments.

Designs - Copyright Interconnection

The proposed amendments to the Designs Act, 2000 seek to accompany Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957. The proposed amendment would allow copyright protection to continue for designs that are registrable under the Designs Act, 2000 but remain unregistered; however, the duration of such copyright protection would be restricted to 15 years only.

Proposed Grace Period

The Designs Act amendments proposed by the authorities seek to introduce a full grace period of 12 months, consistent with Article 7 of the Riyadh Design Law Treaty. The proposed grace period would be blanket in nature, without any pre-conditions and regardless of the manner of disclosure, and would apply for a period of 12 months prior to the date of filing of an application for design registration.

The existing timeline under Section 21 of the Act allows a limited 6-month grace period applicable only in cases where disclosure is made at exhibitions notified by the Central Government.

Deferment of Publication

The proposed Designs Act amendment will introduce a mechanism for deferred publication of registered designs, available at the request of the applicant. The request for deferment would be required to be made at the time of filing, on the prescribed form, along with the prescribed fee. The maximum deferment period proposed is 30 months from the filing date or priority date, which corresponds to the maximum permitted under the Hague Agreement.

Applicants who decide not to proceed with publication would be required to surrender their design registration at least one month before the expiry of the deferment period. A pending application would be allowed to be withdrawn during the deferment period. In such a case, the design will not be published and related documents will remain confidential.

Defence for Innocent Infringements

To balance the rights of design owners against those of third parties, an innocent infringer defence is proposed to be incorporated into Designs Act. When a registered design is infringed during the deferment period and the third party can demonstrate it had no knowledge and no reasonable way to know that the design was registered, the following consequences would apply:

The defendant would not be liable for damages or an account of profits for acts taken before the design was published or before the infringer was notified of registration.
Courts would retain the power to grant injunctive relief to prevent future infringement, once the infringer becomes aware of the design.

Statutory Damages in Designs Act Amendments

There is proposal of introducing statutory damages for wilful infringement of design rights. The court may regard the nature and gravity of the infringement and the scale of business of the infringer, grant statutory damages within a prescribed range. The proposed maximum for a first instance of infringement is up to ₹50 lakhs, in cases whereby proving actual damages is difficult or impractical. Enhanced bands for repeat offenders are also proposed to be prescribed in the statute.

Revisiting Term of Protection

The proposed amendment to Designs Act, 2000 seeks to replace the current term of design protection, an initial term of 10 years, renewable for a further 5years. The same is proposed to be replaced with a "5+5+5" structure. Accordingly, below mentioned approach is sought to be followed as aligns with Article 17 of the Hague Agreement:

An initial term of protection of 5 years would be granted for both national and Hague applications.
The design owner would have the option of two successive renewals of 5 years each.

One Application – Multiple Designs

The Amendment to Designs Act proposes the permission to file multiple designs falling in the same class under a single design application. This would result in noticeable reduction in filing costs and administrative effort as well for the applicants. This is to align with the Riyadh Design Law Treaty and with international systems such as those of the European Union, United Kingdom, and the Hague System.

Divisional Applications

A provision for divisional applications is proposed to be introduced in the Designs Act, in line with Article 9 of the Riyadh Design Law Treaty. A divisional application would allow an applicant to split a pending design application into one or more separate applications where multiple distinct designs are claimed in a single filing or where objections arise during examination. This would prevent an entire application from being blocked due to issues with one of the designs contained within it.

International Designs Registrations

The Designs Act amendment proposes India's accession to the Hague Agreement. Accordingly, there will be a dedicated Chapter in the Designs Act to implement the provisions of the Agreement, which provides a mechanism for registering designs in multiple countries through a single application filed with WIPO. It does not harmonise the substantive aspects of design protection, which will continue to be governed by domestic laws of member countries.

As a result of accession, Indian businesses and designers would be able to seek design protection in multiple jurisdictions through a single international application filed with WIPO. Foreign designers would also be able to seek protection in India by designating India under an international application.