Trademark Registration in India: Protecting Your Brand Name and Logo
Authored by - Adv. Tanushree Khandelwal, Executive at Outsource360
Most founders treat trademark registration in India as a single job: file one application, wait for the certificate, assume the brand is covered. It usually isn't.
Here's the pattern. A company designs a logo, files it as a single device application in one class, waits out the queue, and puts a symbol on the website. Eighteen months later the brand gets a refresh: new typeface, new colourway, the mark redrawn by a better designer. The registration is still sitting in the register. But what it protects is the old artwork, not the name. A competitor can now use the same word in a different visual treatment, and the proprietor is stuck arguing deceptive similarity instead of pointing at a registration that covers the word itself.
The Trade Marks Act, 1999 does not force anyone into that mistake. It just doesn't prevent it. Section 18(1) lets any person claiming to be the proprietor of a mark apply to register it, and the application form asks what the mark is. Answer "our logo" and a logo is exactly what you get.
So trademark registration in India starts with a question most guides skip: are you protecting a brand name, a logo, or both? They're different filings, they cost separately, and they fail differently.
The volume tells you how crowded the field has become. The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks recorded 552,190 trademark applications in FY 2024-25, of which 538,441 came from Indian applicants and 13,749 from abroad. Registrations reached 382,834, up 36.86 per cent on the previous year. That's roughly 1,500 new applications every working day competing for distinctive words in 45 classes. The odds that your first-choice name is clear are worse than they were three years ago, and the odds that someone objects are better.
Two things changed for Indian startups in 2026, and neither is widely reported. The Scheme for Facilitating Startups Intellectual Property Protection, which had the government paying your trademark agent's professional fees, expired on 31 March 2026 with no announced replacement. And the thirteenth edition of the Nice Classification took effect on 1 January 2026, which means goods and services descriptions copied from an older list can now draw an objection that a 2024 filing would have cleared.
What follows is the whole sequence: what a registration actually gives you, the word-mark-or-logo decision, the search that has to happen first, how classes work, the forms and the fees, what happens after filing, and the renewal and non-use rules that decide whether the registration is still worth anything in year six.
Trademark registration in India is governed by the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Trade Marks Rules, 2017, and is filed in Form TM-A on the IP India e-filing portal. The government fee is Rs 4,500 per class for an individual, a DPIIT-recognised startup or a small enterprise filing online, and Rs 9,000 per class for everyone else. Registration is not compulsory, but it is what converts a brand name or logo into an exclusive statutory right under section 28. A registration lasts ten years from the date of application and is renewable indefinitely.
Take that as the frame rather than the answer. Each section below unpacks one part of it, beginning with what the registration is actually worth.
On this page
What trademark registration in India actually gives you
Word mark or logo: the choice that decides how much you own
Is trademark registration mandatory in India?
The search you run before you file
Classes, and the Nice edition that changed on 1 January 2026
How to apply for trademark registration, step by step
What changed for Indian startups in 2026
The logo is two rights, not one
After registration: renewal, non-use and the symbols
The mistakes that cost founders the most
What trademark registration in India actually gives you
A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing your goods or services from someone else's and capable of being represented graphically. Under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 that covers words, names, letters, numerals, devices, labels, shapes of goods, packaging and combinations of colours. In practice, for a startup, it means the brand name and the logo.
So what does the certificate actually buy you that trading under the name for two years does not? Three things, and one of them is not what founders expect.
The right you buy, and the right you already have
Registration under section 28 gives the registered proprietor the exclusive right to use the mark for the goods or services it covers, and the right to sue for infringement. That is a statutory right. You prove your registration certificate and the similarity, and the burden shifts.
Without registration you're not defenceless. Section 27(2) expressly preserves the action for passing off, which protects goodwill built through actual use. But passing off is a harder, slower and more expensive case. You have to prove reputation, misrepresentation and damage, usually with sales figures, advertising spend and consumer evidence. Infringement asks for none of that.
The practical difference shows up at the cease-and-desist stage. A registration number in a legal notice ends most disputes in a fortnight. A claim of unregistered goodwill invites a reply asking for proof.
Section 34 and why the first user still beats the first filer
This is the part that surprises people who've filed in first-to-file jurisdictions. India is not purely first-to-file. Section 34 saves vested rights: a registered proprietor cannot stop someone who has continuously used an identical or nearly resembling mark from a date earlier than the proprietor's own first use or registration, whichever is earlier.
So a registration obtained over a business that was already trading under the name doesn't extinguish that business. It creates a standoff. And it means two things at once: file early, because being the earlier user is only useful if you can prove it, and search properly, because an unregistered prior user won't appear in the register at all.
We'd flag this specifically for founders who buy a domain, trade for two years, then file. Keep dated evidence of first use from day one: invoices, packaging artwork with dates, advertising bookings, the first customer order. That file is worth more than the certificate on the day a section 34 argument starts.
What registration does not cover
A registration is boxed in three ways, and each one catches somebody out. It covers the mark as filed, not every variation of it. It covers the classes you paid for, not the ones you might expand into. And it is territorial: an Indian registration protects you in India, and nowhere else.
That last point matters more than it used to, because a founder selling on a global marketplace from Bengaluru is trading in jurisdictions where the Indian certificate is a piece of paper. International brand protection runs through the Madrid Protocol or through national filings, both of which start from a live Indian application or registration as the base.
Word mark or logo: the choice that decides how much you own
So which one do you file? The honest answer for most companies is both, in that order, and the reason is worth understanding rather than taking on trust.
What a word mark covers
A word mark protects the name itself, independent of how it's written. File the word in plain characters and the protection follows the name through font changes, colour changes, capitalisation, a logo redraw and a website rebuild. It's the broadest form of trademark registration available for a brand name, and per rupee it's the best value in the entire system.
It's also the one that gets refused most often, because it's tested purely on the word. If the name is descriptive of what you sell, section 9(1) will bite. A payments company calling itself "Fast Pay" is asking an examiner to accept exclusivity over two ordinary words in the exact trade they describe.
What a device mark covers, and what it doesn't
A device mark, which is what the Registry calls a logo, protects the artwork as filed. If your logo is a distinctive symbol with no text, that's precisely what you want. If it's your brand name set in a nice typeface with a colour block behind it, you've bought protection for that composition, and only loosely for the name inside it.
Here's the trap. A composite mark (name plus device, filed together) often sails through examination that a bare word mark would fail, because the device supplies the distinctiveness the word lacks. Founders read the acceptance as validation of the name. It isn't. The Registry accepted the picture.
The mistake we see most often is a startup with one composite registration, a rebranded logo, and no protection for the word it's been trading under for three years.
Filing type | What it protects | Survives a logo redesign? | Best for |
Word mark (plain characters) | The name in any font, size, colour or styling | Yes | Any brand name that is distinctive or invented |
Device mark (logo only) | The artwork as represented in the application | No | A symbol or icon used without the name |
Composite mark (name plus logo) | The combination as a whole, weakly the name alone | No | A descriptive name that needs the device to get through section 9 |
Word mark plus device mark, filed separately | Both, independently | Yes, for the word | Any company that expects to rebrand or license |
Colour, and the quiet trap in section 10
Section 10 lets a trademark be limited wholly or partly to a combination of colours, and that limitation is then part of what the tribunal considers when deciding distinctiveness. The flip side is the useful bit: where a mark is registered without limitation of colour, it is deemed registered for all colours.
That produces a counter-intuitive rule of thumb. Filing your logo in black and white generally gives broader coverage than filing it in your brand palette, because an unlimited registration reaches every colourway. Claim the colours only when the colour combination is itself doing the distinguishing work.
Is trademark registration mandatory in India?
No. There is no provision in the Trade Marks Act, 1999 requiring a business to register its brand name or logo before trading, and nothing in company law ties incorporation to a trademark. You can run for a decade unregistered.
The three places where "optional" stops being true
Optional in law is not optional in practice once any of three things happen.
The first is the symbol. Using the ® symbol on an unregistered mark is an offence under section 107, which punishes representing a mark as registered when it isn't, with imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine, or both. The ™ symbol carries no such restriction and can be used on any mark you claim, registered or not. Plenty of Indian websites have this backwards.
The second is anyone who audits you. Investors run IP diligence, marketplaces run brand-gating programmes, and enterprise procurement asks about the marks you license. An application number at least demonstrates a filed claim; nothing at all reads as a gap.
The third is enforcement. The day a copycat appears, the difference between an infringement suit and a passing-off suit is measured in months and lakhs.
Company name registration is not brand protection
A name approved by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and a registered trademark are separate things, decided by separate authorities on separate tests. Incorporating "Meridian Analytics Private Limited" gives you a company name. It does not give you the right to stop a competitor from selling analytics software as Meridian, and it does not stop the Trade Marks Registry from refusing your application over an earlier mark that the MCA database never checked.
This confusion costs more than any other on the list. If you registered the business recently, treat the trademark filing as a separate step with its own clearance search, not as a formality that follows incorporation.
When to file, by stage
For a funded startup, before launch. The cost of the filing is trivial against the cost of a rename after your first press cycle.
For a bootstrapped business, before spending on the brand: before the packaging print run, before the signage, before the paid campaign. The trigger isn't revenue, it's sunk brand spend. Once you've put money behind a name, the option of walking away from it has a price attached.
The search you run before you file
Filing fees are not refundable. Once paid, the Registry keeps them whether your application is accepted, objected to or refused. So the search is where the money is saved.
How thorough does a clearance search actually need to be? More thorough than the two-minute check most founders run, and in three separate places.
The public search on the IP India portal
IP India runs a free public search that needs no login, reachable from the Trade Marks section of ipindiaonline.gov.in. For a brand name you want the Wordmark search, which offers three match types, and the one people ignore is the one that matters.
Start With finds marks beginning with your string. Contains finds it anywhere in the mark. Phonetic finds marks that sound alike, which is where the real risk sits, because section 11(1) refuses registration where similarity to an earlier mark creates a likelihood of confusion, and confusion in Indian practice has always been assessed on sound as much as spelling. Run all three, in every class you intend to file in, plus any class where a confusingly similar business could plausibly sit.
Searching a logo is a different exercise
Device marks are indexed by Vienna Classification code, an international scheme that codes the figurative elements of a mark: a stylised bird, a shield, three concentric circles. Searching logos means identifying the Vienna codes for your elements and browsing what's already registered under them, which is slower and less conclusive than a word search. Fair warning: this is the part where a trademark agent earns the fee, because reading Vienna codes accurately is a practised skill.
What the search will not tell you
Three blind spots, and they're the expensive ones.
Unregistered prior users don't appear. A business that has traded under your name for six years without ever filing is invisible in the register and still holds section 34 rights against you.
Recently filed applications may not be indexed yet. There is a lag between filing and the record becoming searchable.
The search shows what exists, not how an examiner will read it. Two marks can coexist on the register and still draw an objection when a third arrives between them.
Add a plain internet and marketplace search to the register search. Domain registrations, MCA company names, Instagram handles and Amazon listings surface the trading names that the Registry's database never sees.
Classes, and the Nice edition that changed on 1 January 2026
India follows the Nice Classification, the international system that sorts everything into 45 classes: classes 1 to 34 for goods, classes 35 to 45 for services. You file per class, you pay per class, and you're protected per class.
The thirteenth edition, and why it matters this year
The World Intellectual Property Organization brought the thirteenth edition of the Nice Classification into force on 1 January 2026. New editions reclassify some goods and services and revise the accepted wording for others. Existing registrations aren't reclassified, but new applications are examined against the current edition.
The practical consequence is small and annoying. Specifications copied from a 2023 blog post, a template, or an older filing of your own can now attract an objection on classification grounds, which costs you a reply and several months. Draft from the current list, not from a competitor's certificate.
One class or several?
A single application can cover multiple classes, but the fee is charged per class, so a four-class filing costs four times a one-class filing. There is no bulk discount anywhere in the schedule.
The better approach, in our view, is to file narrow and file early rather than wide and late. Take the class where you actually trade today, plus the one class you're most likely to be attacked in. A software company selling a SaaS product usually needs class 42 (software as a service, design and development of software) and class 9 (downloadable software), and often class 35 if it does anything resembling business services. Adding classes 25 and 41 because merchandise and events might happen one day is money that would be better spent on the word mark you skipped.
Business type | Classes usually filed | What each class covers |
SaaS or software product | 42, 9, sometimes 35 | 42 software as a service; 9 downloadable software; 35 business and advertising services |
Consulting, agency or professional services | 35, 41, 45 | 35 business services; 41 training and education; 45 legal services |
Direct-to-consumer apparel | 25, 35 | 25 clothing and footwear; 35 retail and online retail services |
Packaged food and beverage | 29, 30, 32, 35 | 29 and 30 foodstuffs; 32 non-alcoholic beverages; 35 retail |
Fintech or lending | 36, 42, 9 | 36 financial services; 42 software as a service; 9 downloadable software |
Writing the specification
The specification is the list of goods or services inside the class, and it decides the actual width of your right. Too narrow and a competitor operates just outside it. Too wide and you invite both an objection now and a section 47 non-use attack in year six on everything you never sold.
Describe what you sell and what you'll credibly sell within about three years. Then stop.
How to apply for trademark registration, step by step
The application is Form TM-A, filed on the IP India e-filing portal at ipindiaonline.gov.in. Physical filing at a Trade Marks Registry office remains possible and costs Rs 500 more per class, which is a strange amount of money to pay for the privilege of queueing.
Can a founder file this without an agent? Technically yes, and plenty do. But the parts that go wrong are the specification drafting and the reply deadline, not the form itself.
Documents required
The list is short, and one item on it derails more filings than the rest combined.
Applicant identity and address proof, and for a company or LLP the certificate of incorporation and the registered office address.
A clear representation of the mark. For a device mark, an image file at the resolution the portal specifies, exactly as you intend it to be protected.
The list of goods or services, class by class, drafted against the current Nice edition.
Form TM-48, the power of attorney, if a trademark agent or advocate files on your behalf.
Udyam or MSME registration, or the DPIIT startup recognition certificate, if you're claiming the concessional fee. Without the proof on file, the concession is not available and the higher fee applies.
A user affidavit with dated supporting evidence, if you're claiming use from a date earlier than the filing date rather than filing on a proposed-to-be-used basis.
That last one is the derailer. Claiming prior use inflates the value of the application enormously (it's what feeds a section 34 defence later), but an unsupported claim is worse than no claim, because it can be attacked in opposition and it puts your credibility in issue.
Filing, and what it costs
Fees are set by the First Schedule to the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 and are payable per class, per mark. The concessional rate applies to an individual, a startup or a small enterprise. Everyone else, including any company that isn't a recognised startup or an MSME, pays the standard rate.
Form and purpose | Individual, startup or small enterprise | All other applicants |
TM-A, application for registration (per class, per mark), e-filing | Rs 4,500 | Rs 9,000 |
TM-A, physical filing | Rs 5,000 | Rs 10,000 |
TM-M, expedited processing under rule 34, e-filing only | Rs 20,000 | Rs 40,000 |
TM-O, notice of opposition or counterstatement (per class), e-filing | Rs 2,700 | Rs 2,700 |
TM-R, renewal (per class), e-filing | Rs 9,000 | Rs 9,000 |
TM-C, search certificate for copyright registration of an artistic work, e-filing | Rs 9,000 | Rs 9,000 |
Request to record a mark as well known, rule 124, e-filing only | Rs 1,00,000 | Rs 1,00,000 |
Professional fees sit on top and are not regulated. An agent-handled single-class filing typically runs a few thousand rupees for the filing itself, with objection replies, hearings and opposition defence billed separately. Budget for the reply, not just the filing: a meaningful share of applications draw an examination report. If you're weighing whether to run this in-house at all, our comparison of DIY, filing platforms, law firms and outsourced IP teams works through the four models and what each really costs.
The date that gets locked in
Under section 23, when an application is accepted and the opposition period passes without a successful challenge, the Registrar registers the mark as of the date of the application. Not the date of the certificate.
That's why filing early is worth so much. Your ten-year term and your priority both run from the day you filed, even if the certificate arrives two years later. Every week you delay is a week of priority handed to whoever files next.
What happens after you file
Filing is the short part. The queue is the long part, and it has four gates. So where do applications actually die? Not at examination, where most founders expect it. At two calendar dates that nobody was watching.
Formalities, Vienna coding and examination
The portal issues an application number immediately. The application then passes a formalities check, and a device mark is assigned its Vienna codes. It's then examined against the absolute grounds in section 9 (marks that lack distinctive character, or that are descriptive, or that have become customary in the trade) and the relative grounds in section 11 (conflict with earlier marks).
If the examiner objects, or proposes to accept subject to conditions, limitations or amendments, an examination report is issued under rule 33.
The one-month clock most applications lose on
Here's the deadline that quietly kills applications. Rule 33 gives you one month from receipt of the examination report to reply. Miss it and the Registrar may treat the application as abandoned.
One month. Not the thirty days from a follow-up reminder, not thirty days from when you got round to checking the portal. Examination reports arrive by email to the address on the application and are published against the application record, and if that email address belongs to a founder who has since left, or to an agent you've stopped paying, the clock still runs.
Set a calendar reminder to check the application status on the portal every fortnight until the mark is advertised. It costs nothing and it's the single highest-value habit in the whole process.
If the reply doesn't satisfy the Registrar, or you ask for one, a show-cause hearing follows.
Advertisement and the four-month opposition window
Once accepted, the mark is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal, which publishes weekly and is free to view on the IP India site. Advertisement starts the opposition clock.
Any person may oppose within four months of the date the journal in which the mark was advertised is published, by filing Form TM-O under section 21. Since the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 removed the Registrar's power to extend that period, four months is hard. There is no extension for a party that finds out late, which cuts both ways: it protects your application from a straggler, and it means monitoring the journal for conflicting marks is now a real operational task rather than an optional one.
If nobody opposes, the mark proceeds to registration and the certificate issues. If somebody does, you're into a pleadings-and-evidence process with a counterstatement, evidence on both sides and a hearing, and the timeline extends by a year or more.
Rule 34, if you need it faster
Rule 34 provides for expedited processing, and it's more than expedited examination. The rule covers the later stages too: consideration of the reply to the examination report, the show-cause hearing, publication, opposition and final disposal. An expedited application is ordinarily examined within three months of the request.
It costs Rs 20,000 for an individual, startup or small enterprise and Rs 40,000 for others, e-filing only, which is four times the filing fee itself. Worth it when a funding round, a product launch or a marketplace brand-gating deadline turns the certificate into a blocker. Not worth it as a default.
What changed for Indian startups in 2026
Two changes and one consultation, all from this year, and the first one costs money. Does any of it change the statute? No. But it changes what a recognised startup pays, and what an examiner will accept.
The SIPP scheme ended on 31 March 2026
The Scheme for Facilitating Startups Intellectual Property Protection, launched in 2016 under Startup India, connected DPIIT-recognised startups with a panel of empanelled trademark and patent agents. Under it, the government paid the facilitator's professional fees directly, so a recognised startup paid only the statutory filing charge. Over its run, more than Rs 380 lakh was paid out in facilitator reimbursements.
The notified version of the scheme came to an end on 31 March 2026, and as of this writing no extension, renewal or replacement has been announced. SIPP was extended several times across its ten years, so a successor isn't impossible. But a startup budgeting for a filing today should assume professional fees are payable and treat any revival as upside.
What survives: the statutory fee concession
The fee concession is a separate thing from SIPP and it did not expire with it. A DPIIT-recognised startup still files Form TM-A at Rs 4,500 per class instead of Rs 9,000, a 50 per cent reduction that sits in the First Schedule to the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 rather than in any scheme. Individuals and Udyam-registered small enterprises get the same rate on the same basis.
So the honest 2026 position for a recognised startup is: the government still halves your filing fee, but it no longer pays your agent. If DPIIT recognition is on your list for other reasons, our breakdown of what Startup India recognition actually buys a founder covers the rest.
The draft Trademark Office Manual, 2026
On 20 August 2026 the CGPDTM published the Draft Manual of Trademark Office (Practice and Procedure), 2026 for public comment, with a fifteen-day window. It would replace the 2015 manual, which has been overdue for revision for years.
A manual isn't law and doesn't change the Act or the Rules. What it changes is how examiners apply them, which in day-to-day terms is most of what an applicant experiences. Anyone filing volume in India should be reading the final version when it lands, because it will shape objection practice for the next several years.
The logo is two rights, not one
A logo with genuine graphic content is simultaneously two things in Indian law: a trademark, because it distinguishes your goods in trade, and an artistic work, because someone drew it. Those are separate rights, under separate statutes, with separate registrations.
Why founders bother with both
Trademark protection is tied to the goods and services you registered for. Copyright in the artistic work is not: it protects the drawing against reproduction generally, and it runs far longer than a trademark term. For a logo that's genuinely original artwork, holding both closes the gap where a copier uses your device on goods in a class you never filed in.
Copyright subsists automatically on creation, so registration is optional. It's still worth doing, because a registration certificate is prima facie evidence of ownership, and the alternative is proving authorship and chain of title from scratch in the middle of a dispute.
The section 45 proviso, and the Rs 9,000 nobody budgets for
Here's the piece almost no guide mentions. Under the proviso to section 45 of the Copyright Act, 1957, an application to register copyright in an artistic work that is used, or capable of being used, in relation to goods or services must be accompanied by a certificate from the Registrar of Trade Marks stating that no identical or deceptively similar trademark has been registered or applied for by anyone other than the applicant.
That certificate is obtained by filing Form TM-C with the Trade Marks Registry, and it costs Rs 9,000 on e-filing. Which means registering copyright in a commercial logo costs roughly Rs 9,500 in government fees and involves the Trade Marks Registry before the Copyright Office ever sees the file. Budget for it, and expect it to add weeks.
Who owns the logo your designer drew?
Not you, unless the paperwork says so. Under the Copyright Act, the author of an artistic work is its first owner, and a freelance designer is the author. A commissioning arrangement changes ownership only where the statute or a written assignment makes it so.
The fix is cheap at the time and expensive later: a written assignment of copyright, signed by the designer, naming the work and transferring rights to the company, executed before you pay the final invoice. If your logo came from a freelance marketplace three years ago and there's no assignment in the folder, get one now, while the designer is still findable and still cooperative. A clean chain of title on the artwork is also what makes an intellectual property protection claim survive due diligence. Getting the assignment right is one of those short documents where a proper draft beats improvisation, and the same discipline applies across the other agreements a growing company signs.
After registration: renewal, non-use and the symbols
A certificate is not the end of the obligation. Three things can undo it.
Ten years, then ten more
Under section 25, registration lasts ten years and is renewable for successive ten-year periods on Form TM-R, at Rs 9,000 per class on e-filing. There is no limit on renewals, which is why century-old marks still sit on registers around the world.
Miss the date and the Act gives you room, at a price. A renewal filed late attracts a surcharge of Rs 4,500 on e-filing on top of the renewal fee. If the mark is removed from the register, restoration is possible within one year, with a further Rs 9,000 on top. Diary the renewal date the day the certificate arrives, because ten years is long enough for every person who handled the filing to have left the company.
Section 47, and the five-year risk
A registered trademark can be taken off the register on the ground of non-use. Section 47 allows an aggrieved person to apply where the mark was registered without a bona fide intention to use it and there has been no bona fide use up to three months before the date of the application, or where a continuous period of five years and three months has elapsed with no bona fide use.
This is the reason defensive over-filing backfires. Register in eight classes, trade in two, and the other six become a standing invitation for anyone who wants that name in those classes. File where you trade, then extend when you actually extend.
Trademark symbol or registered symbol?
Simple rule, widely broken. Use ™ on any mark you claim as yours, whether or not you've filed. Use ® only after registration has actually been granted, and only for the goods and services the mark is registered for.
Section 107 makes it an offence to represent an unregistered mark as registered, to represent an unregistered part of a mark as separately registered, or to claim registration for goods or services the mark isn't registered for. The punishment extends to three years' imprisonment, or a fine, or both. Nobody's building a prosecution over a website footer, but the provision does real work when a competitor is looking for leverage in a dispute.
The mistakes that cost founders the most
The pattern of failures is remarkably consistent, and none of these are exotic legal traps. They're admin. So which one actually costs the most? The first on the list, by a distance, because it stays invisible until the day you need the registration to work.
Filing the logo and not the name. The single most expensive error in the list, because it only becomes visible at a rebrand or an enforcement attempt, by which point the fix is a new application with a new priority date.
Skipping the phonetic search. Section 11 turns on likelihood of confusion, and sound-alike marks are refused constantly. A Start With search finds none of them.
Missing the one-month examination reply under rule 33. The application is treated as abandoned, the fee is gone, and the priority date goes with it.
Claiming a use date without evidence. An unsupported user claim is an opening for an opponent and a credibility problem in the hearing.
Filing under a founder's personal name rather than the company. Ownership then sits outside the entity, which surfaces as a diligence finding in every funding round afterwards, and transferring it later costs a fee and a filing.
Registering the company name and assuming that covered the brand. Two different authorities, two different tests, one very common surprise.
No written copyright assignment from the designer. The company markets a logo it doesn't own the artwork in.
Over-filing classes for coverage, then losing them to section 47 for non-use.
None of these need a lawyer to avoid. They need a calendar entry and a folder.
Working through a trademark registration alongside everything else a growing company has to file is where these deadlines get dropped. Outsource360's IP team handles trademark search, classification and filing end to end for Indian and cross-border brands, as part of a wider outsourced legal function. Book a consultation if the queue-watching is the part you'd rather hand off.
Frequently asked questions
Is trademark registration mandatory in India?
No. The Trade Marks Act, 1999 does not require registration before you trade, and an unregistered mark still has the passing-off remedy preserved by section 27(2). Registration is what converts a brand name or logo into an exclusive statutory right under section 28, with the far easier infringement remedy attached.
How much does trademark registration cost in India in 2026?
The government fee on Form TM-A is Rs 4,500 per class for an individual, a DPIIT-recognised startup or a small enterprise filing online, and Rs 9,000 per class for everyone else. Physical filing costs Rs 500 more per class. Professional fees are separate and unregulated.
Should I register my brand name or my logo first?
The brand name, as a word mark, if you can only do one. A word mark protects the name in any font, colour or styling and survives a logo redesign, whereas a device mark protects only the artwork as filed. Most companies should file both, separately.
How long does trademark registration take in India?
An unopposed application typically takes somewhere between twelve and twenty-four months from filing to certificate, depending on whether an examination report is issued and how quickly it is answered. Rule 34 expedited processing brings examination to ordinarily within three months of the request, at Rs 20,000 or Rs 40,000 depending on applicant category.
What is Form TM-A?
The application form for registration of a trademark under the Trade Marks Rules, 2017. It is filed on the IP India e-filing portal at ipindiaonline.gov.in, one application per mark, with the fee charged per class covered.
How many classes should a startup file in?
Only the classes you actually trade in today, plus at most one where you are most exposed. Fees are charged per class with no bulk discount, and unused classes become vulnerable to removal for non-use under section 47 after five years and three months.
What happens if I miss the examination report deadline?
Rule 33 gives one month from receipt of the examination report to reply. If no reply is filed, the Registrar may treat the application as abandoned, and the filing fee is not refundable. The only remedy is a fresh application with a new priority date.
How long is the trademark opposition period in India?
Four months from the date of publication of the Trade Marks Journal in which the mark was advertised, on Form TM-O under section 21. The Trade Marks Rules, 2017 removed the Registrar's power to extend it, so the four months are not extendable.
How long does a registered trademark last?
Ten years from the date of the application, under section 25, renewable for successive ten-year periods on Form TM-R at Rs 9,000 per class on e-filing. Late renewal attracts a surcharge, and a removed mark can be restored within one year on payment of a further fee.
Can I use the R symbol before my trademark is registered?
No. Section 107 makes it an offence to represent a mark as registered when it is not, punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine, or both. Use the TM symbol until the registration is granted.
Does registering my company name protect my brand?
No. Company name approval by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and trademark registration are decided by different authorities on different tests. An approved company name does not stop a competitor using the same word as a brand, and it does not stop the Trade Marks Registry refusing your application over an earlier mark.
Do I need to register copyright in my logo as well as the trademark?
It is optional but useful for an original logo, because copyright protects the artwork generally rather than only within the classes you registered. Under the proviso to section 45 of the Copyright Act, 1957, a copyright application for an artistic work used on goods or services must carry a search certificate from the Registrar of Trade Marks, obtained on Form TM-C at Rs 9,000 on e-filing.
Who owns the logo my freelance designer made?
The designer, as author, unless there is a written assignment of copyright to your company. Get the assignment signed before the final invoice is paid, naming the work and transferring the rights, or the company markets artwork it does not own.
Is the Startup India SIPP scheme still available for trademarks?
No. The notified Scheme for Facilitating Startups Intellectual Property Protection, under which the government paid the facilitator's professional fees, ended on 31 March 2026 with no announced replacement. The separate 50 per cent statutory fee concession for DPIIT-recognised startups continues.
What is a device mark?
The Trade Marks Registry's term for a logo, that is, a mark with figurative content rather than plain characters. A device mark protects the artwork as represented in the application, is indexed by Vienna Classification code rather than by word, and does not survive a redesign of the logo.
Should I file my logo in colour or in black and white?
Usually black and white. Section 10 provides that a mark registered without limitation of colour is deemed registered for all colours, so an unlimited filing generally gives broader brand protection. Claim colours only when the specific colour combination is itself doing the distinguishing.
Can somebody who used the name before me keep using it?
Yes, in defined circumstances. Section 34 protects a person who has continuously used an identical or nearly resembling mark from a date earlier than your first use or your registration, whichever is earlier. That is why dated evidence of your own first use is worth keeping from day one.
What is the Nice Classification and did it change in 2026?
It is the international system that sorts goods and services into 45 classes, 1 to 34 for goods and 35 to 45 for services, and India follows it. The thirteenth edition took effect on 1 January 2026, so specifications copied from older lists can now draw a classification objection that they would previously have cleared.
Can I register a trademark in India from outside the country?
Yes. A foreign applicant may file directly in India, or designate India through the Madrid Protocol from a home application or registration. An address for service in India is required, which in practice means appointing an Indian trademark agent or advocate on Form TM-48.
What is a well-known trademark?
A mark recognised by the Registrar as known to a substantial segment of the public, which gets protection extending beyond the classes it is registered in. Under rule 124 of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 a request to record a mark as well known is filed electronically with a statement of case and supporting evidence, at a fee of Rs 1,00,000.
References
The Trade Marks Act, 1999: sections 9, 10, 11, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 34, 47 and 107.
The Trade Marks Rules, 2017: rules 33, 34, 42 and 124, and the First Schedule of fees.
The Copyright Act, 1957: section 45 and its proviso requiring a search certificate from the Registrar of Trade Marks for artistic works used on goods or services.
Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Trade Marks forms and official fees, for the fee figures cited above.
Intellectual Property India e-filing and public search portal, ipindiaonline.gov.in, for Form TM-A filing, wordmark and Vienna-code search, and application status.
World Intellectual Property Organization, Nice Classification, thirteenth edition, in force from 1 January 2026.
Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Annual Report 2024-25, for the FY 2024-25 filing, registration and disposal figures.
Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Draft Manual of Trademark Office (Practice and Procedure), 2026, published for public comment on 20 August 2026.
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Scheme for Facilitating Startups Intellectual Property Protection, in force 2016 to 31 March 2026.
Disclaimer
This article is for educational and general business information purposes only and does not constitute professional legal advice. Trademark law, official fees, forms and Registry practice change, and whether a particular mark is registrable depends on the mark itself, the goods or services claimed, the state of the register and the examiner's assessment. Consult a qualified trademark agent or advocate before filing, replying to an examination report, or acting on any date, fee or provision set out here.
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