India’s first smell trademark signals a new frontier for design
India has granted its first smell trademark to a rose-scented tyre by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, marking a shift beyond visual and verbal branding. The scent, designed to mask the typical rubber odour, is now legally recognised as part of the product’s identity a rare move globally and a first for India’s IP system. But the milestone also exposes a gap.Unlike logos or shapes, scents are difficult to define, represent, and consistently enforce within existing IP structures, raising questions around subjectivity, standardisation, and proof. For India’s design and innovation ecosystem, this is a critical moment. As branding expands into multi-sensory experiences, the law is being pushed beyond its visual bias. The challenge is no longer just protecting design, but updating systems to understand what design has already become. News Source: World Intellectual Property Organistaion
News Source: World Intellectual Property Organistaion