India updates design laws

In order to be registrable, a design must be new or original. The system tends towards the exclusion of categories of non-registrable designs rather than the positive identification of registrable designs, reports the International Law Office. Designs are not registrable if they are neither new nor original or have been disclosed to the public in India or any other country, for instance. India has also adopted a new classification system for the registration of designs that conforms to the Locarno classification of industrial designs. In order to claim prior right in a design, an applicant must have applied for the protection of the design in a country or group of countries that is a party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 1883 or a member state of an inter-governmental organisation guaranteeing similar rights. Full International Law Office report