How to patent a dress design in India?

The fashion industry is very vulnerable to copyright violations and other intellectual property infringements. Patenting the designs demand many important details that should be followed to protect the patent. Fabric combinations and highlighted trends can not be patented for the protection of the patent. Criteria must be fulfilled to patent dress designs as the fashion industry is based on innovation and uniqueness. The designs must not be copied from some random source and the base design has to be new. The ideas have to represent something and have to be meaningful and also useful for society.

Patent Jul 25, 2022 0 Add to Reading List

Introduction

On 13th June 2022, Adidas, the multinational shoes, clothing and accessory designing and manufacturing corporation sued Nike which is another multinational company involved in designing and manufacturing footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for infringement of the patent or breaching several patent laws with its mobile apps and shoe-fitting technology, marking

Adidas' first federal lawsuit against its rival in a fight between the world's two largest sneaker brands. Every country has different patent laws to secure intellectual property rights. This scenario is associated with the international patent laws but similar scenarios happen in India.

Today, the fashion industry is one of the most innovative and growing industries in India. As this industry is based on unique ideas, copying of ideas is prevalent in this industry. Various famous fashion designers face copyright issues as many small retailers copy the designs of the real dresses and sell the imitation at a very cheap price.

This article is going to explain the possible ways of patenting a dress design in India and the limitations and shortcomings associated with the patenting.

The possible ways and steps

Indian patent law is defined under the provisions of the Patent Act 1970. The terms and conditions are established by the statute and according to that, the owner of the designs can enjoy 15 years of protection under the statute.

Filing an application for a patent is the first and foremost step and then there are some strict criteria that have to be met. The process of meeting the standards to have the patent of the design has been mentioned below in a lucid but elaborate manner.

Actually, the primary objective of ratifying patent law is to motivate inventors to make a greater contribution to their field by granting them exclusive rights to their inventions.

Protection of designs under the Designs Act, 2000 protects the works from any infringement. One who wants his/her designs to get protection then he/she must register his/her work under the Designs Act. The Design Act grants protection to the shape, colour, design and pattern of the product’s design for a period of 10 years. The period of protection can be extended to 15 years.

Some criteria must be fulfilled to patent a dress design and these rules are set by the Indian Patent offices. The criteria are mentioned below:-

The designs are extremely innovative and inspire new designs. In nutshell, the base design has to be new and absolutely unique. For example, if a designer copies the base design from another source and creates a design proposed to be his then the design is not unique and can not be patented.
The designs are new and no one before that thought of them. It should attract the eyes of potential clients and the design must be noticeable enough to attract the attention of the fashion jury.
The design is “ patentable subject matter. The design must represent something unique and is not a copied idea. It is a customer-ready design, which will satisfy the patent office for taking responsibility for the patent.

The dress design is examined by a patent examiner judge. The design is considered by the examiner keeping in mind the ordinary cloth purchasers and also those consumers, who purchase branded clothes.

If the patent officer is satisfied with the details and concludes that the design is generic, then it is allowed to move on with the design. The next step with which the dress design will proceed is to ensure that the design is useful and for that, the designer must prove that the design represents something and it is meaningful. This step is mandatory to follow but actually, the designs rarely face disapproval as they do not contribute anything practical to the world.

The limitations

Knockoff and Counterfeit are two of the techniques, through which imitations of the real designs were made. These products are not identical to real products. These products are not sold at a high price as the real designed dresses but at a comparatively cheaper and affordable price.

As the goal of knockoff is not passing the original product, it is not illegal as per the law. But if it is seen that the design is so close to the original design that it can deceive the customers, then legal action can be taken against the marketers.

In the case of counterfeit, an identical copy or an exact imitation is made of the original design dress, which is the opposite of a knockoff. Now, this imitation is also sold at a cheaper and more affordable price which holds the intention of breaking the trademark laws of the original designer product. So, counterfeiting is considered an illegal practice by the law and it is kept under as many restrictions as possible to prohibit the sale of these products.

Any designs which are not protected under the Designs Act, those designs will not get any compensation for the damages. There are some criteria to get the designs registered under the act. The works that are to be registered should be unique and new and it should be novel.

Conclusion

The fashion industry is very vulnerable to copyright violations and other intellectual property infringements. Patenting the designs demand many important details that should be followed to protect the patent. Fabric combinations and highlighted trends can not be patented for the protection of the patent.

Criteria must be fulfilled to patent dress designs as the fashion industry is based on innovation and uniqueness. The designs must not be copied from some random source and the base design has to be new. The ideas have to represent something and have to be meaningful and also useful for society.

References