Trademark registration fees in India, explained

For e-filing, the government fee per class per mark is:

• ₹4,500 for individuals, sole proprietors, startups recognised by DPIIT, and small enterprises registered under Udyam.
• ₹9,000 for everyone else — companies, LLPs and partnerships that do not qualify as small enterprises.

Physical filing costs ₹500 more per class in each case, and is slower. There is no reason to file physically.

The reduced rate is not automatic. You must hold and produce the Udyam or DPIIT certificate at the time of filing. A company that could have registered under Udyam first, and did not, simply pays double.

India follows the Nice Classification, which divides goods and services into 45 classes — 1 to 34 for goods, 35 to 45 for services. Protection exists only in the classes you file in.

A company selling a packaged food product online might need Class 30 for the food itself and Class 35 for retail services. That is two classes, so two fees. A wordmark and a logo filed separately are two marks, so the fee doubles again.

Filing broadly “to be safe” is expensive and can itself invite objections and non-use challenges. Most businesses genuinely need one or two classes.

Objections and oppositions are separate. Roughly speaking, expect an examination report on a meaningful share of applications, and budget for a reply.

A registration lasts ten years from the date of application and renews indefinitely. Renewal costs ₹9,000 per class for e-filing — and the ₹4,500 concession does not apply. It is available only on the initial application.

Renewal can be filed up to a year before expiry at no extra cost, and within six months after expiry with a surcharge. After that the mark is liable to removal.

Startups recognised under DPIIT get more than the reduced fee. The Startup India IPR facilitation scheme provides an 80% rebate on patent fees and 50% on trademarks, with government-empanelled facilitators handling the drafting at government cost.

Since DPIIT recognition itself is free, a startup that files its trademark before obtaining recognition is leaving money on the table for no reason. Do the recognition first.

These are the e-filing fees; physical filing costs about ten percent more. The reduced rate for the first two rows is available to individuals, DPIIT-recognised startups and enterprises holding an MSME registration, on production of the certificate. Only the application and expedited examination carry the concession; opposition, renewal and post-registration fees are the same for everyone.

An examination report objecting under section 9 (descriptiveness) or section 11 (similarity) must be answered within 30 days. There is no government fee for the reply, but a reply that fails leads to a show-cause hearing, and a hearing that fails leads to refusal with the application fee lost. Professional fees for a reasoned reply with evidence of use run from about ₹1,000 to ₹5,000; ours starts at ₹999.

Opposition is the expensive stage. Once the mark is advertised, any person has four months to oppose at ₹2,700 per class. The applicant then files a counter-statement, also ₹2,700, within two months, and both sides file evidence by affidavit before a hearing. The government fees are modest; the professional fees for evidence and the hearing typically run from ₹10,000 to ₹50,000 per side over a year or more. Our opposition service starts at ₹4,999.

A search before filing is the cheapest insurance against all of this. Most oppositions are foreseeable from the register.

A DPIIT-recognised software startup filing its word mark in classes 9 and 42 pays ₹9,000 in government fees at the concessional rate, plus the professional fee for the search and filing. If one class attracts an examination objection and the reply succeeds, nothing more is due. If the mark is opposed in one class, add ₹2,700 for the counter-statement and the professional cost of the evidence stage. Ten years later, renewal costs ₹18,000 for the two classes, at the full rate, with no startup concession.

The same filing by a company without recognition costs ₹18,000 at the outset. For a founder who has not yet applied for DPIIT recognition, the trademark fee saving alone usually pays for the recognition.