Trademark Search

Because filing a mark that conflicts with an existing one wastes your government fee and months of time, and risks objection or opposition. A search tells you whether to proceed.

The register is public, but reading it well — accounting for similar and phonetic marks across related classes — is a skill. A professional search catches conflicts a casual look misses.

No. A search reduces risk significantly, but the Registry's examination is final and oppositions can still arise. We never promise registration.

Goods and services are grouped into 45 classes. Your mark is protected in the classes you file in, so searching and filing in the right class matters.

Yes. Marks that are phonetically or visually similar in the same or related classes can block your application or invite opposition. We assess these.

Usually same day to 1–2 working days, depending on the depth and number of classes.

A risk-flagged report with identical and similar marks, a class recommendation, and a clear proceed/tweak/rethink view.

No. A domain or social handle does not give trademark rights. Only a registered trademark protects the brand name legally.

Yes. If the search is clear, we take it straight to filing and track it through examination and registration.

Both. The Explanation to section 11 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 defines an 'earlier trade mark' to include an application under section 18 with an earlier date of filing, an international registration under section 36E, and a convention application under section 154 with an earlier date. So an application filed before yours — even one that has not been examined, and even one that is itself under objection — is on the record and can be cited against you until it is disposed of. Any search that filters out pending applications is only reading half the register.

Not automatically, and this is the finding most casual searches get wrong. Section 26 says a mark removed for failure to pay the renewal fee is still deemed to be on the register, for the purpose of an application for another mark, for one year after removal — unless the Registrar is satisfied that there was no bona fide trade use in the two years before removal, or that no confusion would be likely. On top of that, the proviso to section 25(3) allows renewal with a surcharge within six months of expiry and section 25(4) allows restoration after six months and within one year. So we report the removal date and tell you when each window actually closes.

It is widely sold as one, and that is a misreading of the rule. Rule 22(1) of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 lets any person request the Registrar, on Form TM-C, to cause a search and issue a certificate under section 45(1) of the Copyright Act, 1957 — certifying that no trade mark identical with or deceptively similar to the artistic work being registered as copyright has been registered as a trade mark, or applied for, by anyone other than the applicant. It is the trade-mark no-objection certificate the Copyright Office asks for when you register a logo as an artistic work. It is not a clearance search for a trade mark application. The certificate is ordinarily issued within thirty working days, and the request is treated as abandoned if the Registrar calls for a statement of requirements and it is not met within two months. Rule 22(3) provides an expedited version, ordinarily within seven working days. Fees: ₹10,000 physical / ₹9,000 e-filing, and ₹30,000 for the expedited one, e-filing only. For deciding whether your brand name is free, the free public search is the tool.

They can. Classes organise the register; they do not decide similarity. Section 11(1) turns on whether there exists a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public, which includes the likelihood of association with the earlier mark — and related goods sitting in adjacent classes are exactly where that arises. Section 11(2) goes further and reaches identical or similar marks on dissimilar goods where the earlier mark is well known in India, which is why we also check the published list of well-known trade marks.

No, and it is worth being blunt about this. Acceptance and advertisement open a four-month opposition window under section 21(1), and section 21(5) lets the Registrar take a ground into account whether the opponent relied on it or not. Separately, rights can exist off the register: section 35 preserves bona fide use of a person's own name, and section 27(2) preserves the passing-off action for unregistered marks. A search is the best available evidence of risk, not a clearance.

The public register carries live and historical entries, so a well-run search reaches back through removed and abandoned records as well as live ones — that is how the section 26 point above gets caught. It is current as at the moment it is run, and no further. Filings made after your report will not appear in it, so if a naming decision takes months, re-run the search before you file.

A phonetic search looks for marks that sound like yours rather than marks spelt like yours. It matters because the Registry's own draft practice guidance directs examiners to compare marks as a whole, without meticulous letter-by-letter comparison, from the viewpoint of a person of average intelligence and imperfect recollection, and to weigh structural, visual, phonetic and conceptual similarity — with likelihood of confusion needing only to be probable, not actual. That is a much wider net than an exact-match query casts. (That guidance is expressly a draft and does not have the force of law; we cite it as practice guidance, not authority.)