Trademark Registration in India

Nice-class clearance search, TM-A filing and prosecution through examination, publication in the Trade Marks Journal and any opposition. Filing is per class and so is the fee: Rs 4,500 per class on e-filing for an individual, a startup or a small enterprise, and Rs 9,000 per class for every other applicant, which is what an ordinary private limited company pays. Classes 1-34 cover goods and 35-45 services, and an application may be filed on a proposed-to-be-used basis or on prior use, which requires a user affidavit. An examination report must be answered within one month of its date or the application is treated as abandoned (Trade Marks Rules 2017 rule 33(4)); a third party may oppose within four months of publication in the Journal, and the applicant then has two months from receipt of the notice to file a counterstatement (rule 44(1)). A registration runs 10 years from the date of application and is renewable indefinitely in successive 10-year periods at Rs 9,000 per class. IP India publishes no examination-to-registration service level, so we describe the stages and refuse to invent a date. For a DPIIT-recognised startup the Central Government bears the entire facilitator fee under the Startup India IPR scheme, so the startup pays only the statutory fees — we price accordingly rather than quoting a full professional fee.