Trademark Registration in India — Brand Name, Logo & Slogan Protection

Government fees are ₹4,500 per class for individuals, DPIIT-recognised startups, and Udyam-registered MSMEs filing online, and ₹9,000 per class for companies, LLPs, and other entities. There's no bundling discount — each additional class is charged separately, and the fee is non-refundable once paid, regardless of the outcome.

Yes. You can use the ™ symbol as soon as you've filed your application, or even before, to assert common-law rights, since it simply signals that you're claiming the mark as a trademark. The ® symbol, however, can only be used once the Trade Marks Registry has actually issued your registration certificate — using it earlier is a legal misstatement.

An unopposed application typically takes 12–18 months from filing to registration, most of which is the mandatory four-month journal publication and opposition window plus examiner processing time. If a third party opposes your mark, resolution can add several months to over a year, depending on how the opposition proceeds.

Your application moves into opposition proceedings before the Registrar, where you file a counter-statement responding to the opposition within the prescribed period, followed by evidence and, often, a hearing. Missing the counter-statement deadline results in your application being treated as abandoned, so a timely response is critical.

Yes — trademark protection is class-specific, so if you sell both apparel and cosmetics, you need coverage in both relevant classes to be protected in each category. Registering in only one class leaves your brand name unprotected in the others.

A registered trademark is valid for 10 years from the filing date and can be renewed indefinitely in further 10-year terms, as long as you file the renewal before it lapses. There's no cap on how many times you can renew — trademarks decades old remain protected this way.

Sometimes — trademark protection is generally limited to the classes you're registered in, so a similar name in an unrelated category can coexist, unless the earlier mark is well-known enough to receive broader protection. This is exactly the kind of judgment call a proper search should catch before you file, not after.

Registering a company name with the MCA only reserves that name for incorporation purposes within India's company registry — it does not stop someone else from trademarking a similar name for their products or services. A trademark is the separate, sector-specific protection that actually stops others from using a confusingly similar brand name commercially.