India has signed the Final Act of the Riyadh Design Law Convention which was adopted by the member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) after nearly two decades of negotiations, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced on Tuesday.
“By signing the Final Act of the Riyadh Convention on Design Law, India builds on its progress and reaffirms its commitment to promoting inclusive growth and ensuring equal access to intellectual property protection,” the statement said.
The agreement aims to harmonize the frameworks of industrial structure protection procedures, to improve the efficiency and accessibility of registration procedures in many jurisdictions. By standardizing process requirements, DLT reduces administrative burdens, thereby improving global intelligence in design.
Its goal is to ensure that the benefits of structured design protection are accessible to all stakeholders, with special emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), start-ups, and independent designers, the statement explained.
DLT introduces several important provisions aimed at benefiting design applicants, including relaxed time limits, restoration of lost rights, the option to correct or add substantive claims, simplified procedures for recording assignments and licenses, and the option to file multiple designs in one place. request.
These changes provide greater flexibility to design applicants. In addition, the agreement encourages contracting parties to work towards implementing electronic industrial design systems and facilitating the electronic exchange of important documents.
Combined with programs such as the Startup India program and the Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) program, these provisions will help empower startups and SMEs to protect design rights globally, increase their competitiveness and support market growth.
“India, with its rich heritage of innovation and creativity, has long recognized the important role of design in driving sustainable economic development. The emphasis of the country’s policy on the protection of projects as a role in innovation has brought positive results,” the statement added.
Over the past decade, project registrations in India have tripled, with home completions growing by 120 percent in the past two years alone. Notably, design requests have grown by 25 percent in the past year.
