DPIIT proposes amendments to the Design Act

India is considering long-overdue amendments to the Designs Act, signalling a reset in how industrial design is registered, protected, and enforced. The proposed changes aim to modernise definitions, speed up examination timelines, strengthen digital processes, and bring India’s design law closer to how products are actually conceived and iterated today. What’s at stake is not legal housekeeping. Design protection shapes whether originality is rewarded or copied, especially for startups and MSMEs operating on thin margins. When registration is slow or unclear, design becomes risky to invest in. Updating the Act recognises that design is no longer decorative. It is competitive infrastructure. As India pushes manufacturing, export-led growth, and product innovation, how the law treats design will quietly decide who can build, scale, and defend original ideas.

As India pushes manufacturing, export-led growth, and product innovation, how the law treats design will quietly decide who can build, scale, and defend original ideas.