The WIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025 record a 43.2% year-on-year increase in Indian design filings in 2024 - the highest growth rate among the top 20 design offices globally. This rise reflects structural shifts in India’s innovation ecosystem and underscores the need to reassess the existing design law framework. Following stakeholder consultations, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released a Concept Note on January 23, 2026 (access the Concept Note here), outlining proposed amendments to the Designs Act, 2000. Stakeholder comments are invited until February 22, 2026.

Key proposed changes are summarised below:

1. Protection of GUIs and Virtual Designs
The definitions of “design” and “article” are proposed to be amended by expanding the scope of “industrial process” and expressly including animation, movement, and transition. “Article” may be revised to cover items in physical or non-physical form, including GUIs, icons, graphic symbols, typefaces, and AR-based interfaces, decoupling design protection from physical embodiment.

2. Design–Copyright Interface
Currently, the Copyright Act, 1957 extends protection to any “works that are capable of being registered as designs but which have not been so registered and are applied to articles through an industrial process.” However, such protection ceases as soon as any article to which the design has been applied is reproduced more than 50 times by an industrial process (S. 15(2)). This overlap has been subject to conflicting interpretations and now copyright protection is proposed for unregistered designs for a limited term of 15 years, aligning the duration with registered design protection.

3. Full Grace Period
A full 12-month grace period is proposed, without restrictions on the manner of disclosure, replacing the current limited exhibition-based exception under Section 21. This would align with the Riyadh Design Law Treaty (DLT) and better accommodate modern commercial disclosures, particularly benefiting MSMEs and startups.

4. Deferment of Publication
Deferred publication of registered designs is proposed, allowing applicants to postpone publication for up to 30 months (in line with the Hague Agreement) upon request at filing. The framework includes safeguards such as withdrawal or surrender before expiry and an innocent infringer defence limiting retrospective monetary remedies.

5. Statutory Damages
Courts may be empowered to award statutory damages of up to INR 5 million (approx. USD 55,000) for wilful infringement where actual damages are difficult to prove, with enhanced penalties for repeat offenders.

6. Term of Protection
The existing 10+5 year term is proposed to be replaced with a 5+5+5 structure, aligned with the Hague Agreement, allowing protection to be maintained only where designs remain commercially relevant.

7. Related Designs in a Single Application
Filing of multiple related design variants within the same class through a single application is proposed, recognising product families and enabling consistent examination, in line with the DLT and Hague Agreement.

8. Division of Applications
Divisional applications are proposed to allow pending applications to be split to address multiple designs or examination objections without jeopardising valid rights.

9. Accession to the Hague Agreement
A dedicated chapter is proposed to facilitate India’s accession to the Hague Agreement, enabling Indian applicants to seek multi-jurisdictional design protection through a single WIPO filing.

10. Accession to the DLT
Amendments are proposed to meet DLT obligations, including simplified procedural compliance, restoration of design rights lost due to unintentional non-compliance, and addition, correction or restoration of priority claims.