Indian law has several kinds of protection that can touch clothing. They are named here so you know what to ask about. Whether any of them protects your trouser is a question for a lawyer.

• Design registration under the Designs Act, 2000: for the new shape, pattern or ornament of an article. Applications go to the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.
• Copyright under the Copyright Act, 1957: for original artistic works, such as a print, an embroidery design drawing or a sketch. How copyright and design registration interact for garments is a technical point to take to a lawyer.
• Trade marks under the Trade Marks Act, 1999: for your brand name and logo. Registered through the same Controller General’s office.
• Geographical Indications under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999: for products tied to a region; usually held by an association, not by one maker.
• Agreements: confidentiality and work agreements with staff, pattern makers and job workers.

Some things are generally not owned by anyone: the basic shapes of trousers, traditional styles such as the salwar or dhoti, and common techniques. Building on them is how fashion works. Copying another maker’s distinctive work is a different matter. Ask a lawyer where the line falls.

1. Date your work: keep dated sketches, patterns, sample photos and first-sale records.
2. Use your brand name consistently on labels, tags, packaging and online.
3. Share patterns with job workers only under a written agreement, and number each copy.
4. Keep master patterns in your studio; send copies, not originals.
5. Credit others when you build on their ideas or crafts, and pay artisans fairly for their designs.
6. Do not use another person’s or brand’s method name to sell your work. D&D uses its own coined names, such as Roopanthara Cutting (see Module 9).

1. Order woven labels in a run large enough to last, but check fibre lines are added per style.
2. Print care labels separately from brand labels, so one brand label works for all styles.
3. Sew labels where they won’t scratch: a side seam for trousers, or a centre-back waistband with soft edges.
4. Children’s trousers: soft printed labels, or print the care information on the inside, so nothing rubs.
5. Test fibre content claims with the supplier’s documents; a burn test is a guide, not proof.
6. Keep supplier invoices and certificates for any fibre or mark you claim.
7. Use your own care symbols drawn in-house, or check permission: some symbol sets are trademarks.
8. Add a QR code to a swing tag that links to care instructions and your story.
9. Photograph your label layouts and keep them with the style’s records.
10. What professionals do differently: they treat the label as part of the design, decided before sampling.

The fibre content on the label is wrong

1. Stop selling that batch until the label is corrected.
2. Get the supplier’s written fibre content.
3. Prevention: never label from memory; label from documents.

Customers wash the trouser wrongly and it shrinks

1. Check whether the care label was clear.
2. Offer a fix if possible.
3. Prevention: test-wash a sample and write care from the test.

Labels scratch

1. Move or soften them.
2. Switch to printed or soft woven labels.
3. Prevention: test a label against skin before ordering in bulk.

Someone copies your style

1. Gather dated evidence of your work.
2. Ask a lawyer about your options.
3. Prevention: register what can be registered, on a lawyer’s advice, before launch.

Your brand name is already used

1. Stop and ask a lawyer before investing more in it.
2. Consider a new name.
3. Prevention: ask a lawyer or trade mark agent to search before choosing a name.

A buyer asks for a mark you don’t have

1. Ask what evidence the buyer will accept.
2. Find out from the body that runs the mark how to qualify.
3. Prevention: learn buyers’ requirements before quoting.

A job worker sells your pattern to others

1. Talk to the job worker, and ask a lawyer.
2. Stop sharing originals.
3. Prevention: a written agreement and numbered pattern copies.

• A lawyer: whether your design can be registered and whether that is worth it; how copyright applies to your prints and embroidery; what to do if someone copies you; what agreements to use with staff and job workers.
• A trade mark agent or lawyer: a search before you choose a brand name; filing a trade mark application.
• Your state Legal Metrology department: what your labels and packaging must show.
• The Central Silk Board, Handlooms office or KVIC: how to qualify for their marks.
• The GI Registry and the GI holder: whether you may use a GI name for a product.
• BIS: which standards apply to your products, and whether any are compulsory.

• Does my label show size, fibre, care and origin accurately?
• Do I keep documents for every fibre or mark I claim?
• Do I know the names of the laws that cover designs, copyright and trade marks?
• Do I keep dated records of my designs?
• Have I asked the right office about my labels?

• Swing tag: a removable tag on a new garment.
• Design registration: legal protection for the new look of an article.
• Trade mark: a protected brand name or logo.
• GI: Geographical Indication, a name tied to a place and tradition.
• Fibre content: the fibres in a cloth, given in percentages.