Articles By Aswal Associates

Trade dress refers to characteristics of the visual or sensual appearance of a product that may also include its packaging which may be registered and protected from being used by competitors in relation to their business and services. The characteristic includes their shape (3 dimensional), packaging, colour, graphic design or even the smell of the product.

Recently the Indian Government has proposed to amend the rules governing the Indian Design Act and in this regards has published Drat Design (Amendment) Rules, 2007 to seek opinion of general public. The major changes suggested by the draft amendments rules are as follows:

Patents are granted to encourage the inventors to disclose their inventions and also to grant them monopolistic right to exploit the invention. The objective of Patent Grant in India is to ensure that the inventions are worked in India on a commercial scale and to the fullest extent without any undue delay

All PCT Applications designating India are considered as Indian Patent Applications filed on the date of the International Application. The period for entering into national phase is 31 months from the priority date.