Indian craft sits at the intersection of design, GI and trademark law. The right filing depends on whether you are a brand, a producer, or both.
Indian craft businesses span three different IP rights depending on what is being sold and who is selling it. A brand-led jewellery house files trademarks and registers designs. A regional handicraft cooperative files a Geographical Indication. A textile brand mixes all three.
The most expensive mistake we see: a single producer trying to file a regional craft name as a private trademark. The right is collective under the GI regime — the trademark filing gets refused, and the GI route was never explored.
Three filings cover most of the IP risk on day one. Each is a standalone service and each links to a deeper walkthrough.
Pochampally Ikat received GI status in 2005 and gave the regional producer cooperative collective enforcement rights against unauthorised use of the name. No single weaver could have obtained that protection as a trademark — the rights would have been refused as descriptive.
Indian jewellery and textile houses rarely register designs even though they create dozens of new ornaments and patterns each year. A design registration costs ₹1,000 (startup / individual / MSME) or ₹4,000 (others) per design, protects for 10 years extendable by 5, and provides clean enforcement against direct copies.
The catch: design must be filed before public disclosure. Show the collection at a fashion week or exhibition first and the right is gone under Section 4 of the Designs Act, 2000.
Producer cooperative or regional craft body? A GI tag is one of the highest-leverage filings available — start with eligibility.
WhatsApp our team →No. A Geographical Indication is filed by an association of producers or a body representing producers — not by individuals for private benefit. A single jeweller files trademarks and design registrations instead.
Register it as a design under the Designs Act, 2000 before any public sale or exhibition. Copyright also subsists in the original pattern under Section 15(2) but is lost if more than 50 reproductions of the design are made without design registration.
Class 14 covers precious metals and their alloys, jewellery, precious and semi-precious stones, horological and chronometric instruments. Retail of jewellery is Class 35.
A registered GI is valid for 10 years and is renewable indefinitely in 10-year terms under the GI Rules, 2002. Authorised user registration runs in parallel and also needs renewal.