At a glance
| Law | Form | Government fee | What is protected | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Marks Act, 1999 and Trade Marks Rules, 2017 | Form TM-A, e-filed | ₹4,500 or ₹9,000 per class, per mark | The device as represented, for the goods or services applied for | 10 years from the application date, renewable |
A logo is registered as a trademark, not as a logo
Your logo is protected by registering it as a trademark. Section 2(1)(m) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 defines "mark" to include a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, numeral, shape of goods, packaging or combination of colours, or any combination of those. A logo is a device, and a device mark is what the Registry calls it.
Section 2(1)(zb) adds the two tests the logo has to pass. It must be capable of being represented graphically, which a logo is by definition, and it must be capable of distinguishing your goods or services from other people's. The second test is where weak logos fail: a plain shopping bag on a retail logo, or a leaf on an organic food logo, is describing the trade rather than distinguishing you within it.
So the practical question is never "trademark or logo". It is which elements of your brand get their own application.
Word mark, device mark, or both
A word mark is the name in plain text, with no styling. A device mark is the artwork. They protect different things, and for most businesses they are not substitutes.
| Word mark | Device mark (logo) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you file | The name, in standard characters | The logo image, exactly as it will be used |
| What it covers | The name however it is written, styled or typeset | The device as represented in the application |
| Stops a competitor who | Uses your name in any font or layout | Uses artwork confusingly similar to yours |
| Does not stop | A confusingly similar logo carrying a different name | A competitor using your name in a different logo |
| Government fee | ₹4,500 or ₹9,000 per class, per mark | ₹4,500 or ₹9,000 per class, per mark |
| Where | wordmark registration | This page |
The general rule we apply: if the name is the thing customers say, file the word mark. If the artwork is the thing customers recognise, file the device mark. If both are true, which is the usual case, file both, because two applications in one class cost the same as one application in two classes.
The section 17 trap in a composite logo
This is the part most buyers get wrong, and it is statutory.
Most logos are composite: artwork plus the brand name, sometimes plus a tagline. Section 17(1) says that where a trade mark consists of several matters, its registration confers on the proprietor exclusive rights in the mark taken as a whole. Section 17(2) then removes any exclusive right in a part of the mark that is not the subject of a separate application, or that is not distinctive in itself.
Read together, that means a registration of your composite logo protects the combination. It does not give you a standalone right in the name printed inside it. A competitor who takes the name and pairs it with different artwork is not copying your device, and you are arguing about the whole-mark comparison rather than about your name.
Section 15 is the provision that lets you deal with this properly. Where you claim to be the proprietor of several separable parts of a mark, each of them capable of distinguishing on its own, you may apply to register them as separate trade marks. In practice that is the word mark and the device mark, filed together in the same classes on the same day.
The Vienna Classification, and why it decides whether you are found
The NICE Classification puts your application into one of the 45 classes by what you sell. The Vienna Classification does something different: it codes the figurative elements of a device so that the Registry and the public can search by what the logo looks like.
A crown, a shield, a lion, a stylised letter, a circle of dots: each has a Vienna code. IP India publishes a Vienna Code Classification utility on its public search site, alongside the class details utility and the well known marks list.
Two consequences follow.
Before you file. A word search will not find a logo that looks like yours but carries a different name. That mark can still be cited against you under section 11, and its owner can oppose you after advertisement. A figurative search by Vienna code is the only way to see it. See trademark search for what a search does and does not settle.
After you file. The Registry codes your device at the formalities stage. If the coding is wrong, your mark is harder for others to find, which sounds like an advantage and is not: an applicant who cannot find you files a similar mark, and you end up paying to oppose it.
Colour: claim it, or leave it open
Section 10 gives you a choice, and it is worth making deliberately.
Under section 10(1), a trade mark may be limited wholly or in part to any combination of colours, and any such limitation is taken into consideration in deciding the distinctive character of the mark. Under section 10(2), so far as a trade mark is registered without limitation of colour, it is deemed to be registered for all colours.
| Your choice | What you get | When it suits you |
|---|---|---|
| File without a colour limitation | The mark is deemed registered for all colours, so the shape and layout are protected whatever palette a copycat uses | Most businesses, most of the time. It is the broader claim |
| Claim specific colours | The colour combination becomes part of the mark and is taken into account on distinctiveness | Where the colour pairing is the recognisable thing, or where a colour claim helps carry an otherwise weak device past examination |
A common approach is to file the primary version without a colour limitation, and consider a separate colour application only where the palette itself does the distinguishing work.
What a logo registration stops, and what it does not
Section 28 gives the registered proprietor the exclusive right to use the mark in relation to the goods or services for which it is registered, and the right to obtain relief for infringement in the manner the Act provides.
What that means on the ground:
- It stops a competitor using a device that is identical or confusingly similar, on the goods or services you registered for.
- It does not automatically stop use in a class you did not apply for. Your rights follow your specification.
- It does not give you the name on its own, for the section 17 reason above.
- It does not stop someone copying the artwork for a purpose outside trade, such as reproducing the drawing itself. That is a copyright question, below.
- It does not police itself. Registration gives you the right to act. Watching the Trade Marks Journal and acting on infringement is separate work: see trademark infringement.
Falsely representing a mark as registered is an offence under section 107, so use TM until the mark is registered and only then use the R symbol.
Logo, copyright and design: three rights, one image
The same image can sit under three statutes. They are not alternatives; they answer different questions.
| Trademark (device mark) | Copyright (artistic work) | Design | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | Who may use this as a badge of origin in this trade | Who owns this drawing | Who may apply this shape or ornamentation to an article |
| Law | Trade Marks Act, 1999 | Copyright Act, 1957 | Designs Act, 2000 |
| Government fee | ₹4,500 or ₹9,000 per class per mark | ₹2,000 per work for artwork used on goods or services, plus the Rule 70 certificate | ₹1,000 for individuals, startups and small entities, or ₹4,000 for others, per design per class |
| Term | 10 years from the application date, renewable without limit | 60 years, measured by work type | 10 years, extendable by 5 years |
| Where | This page | copyright registration | Not a Regikart page yet |
For a logo you trade under, the trademark is the right that does the commercial work, because commercial copying is copying of the brand. Copyright is the useful addition where the artwork has value in itself, where an outside designer made it, or where you need a record of who authored it. Where the question is how the product works rather than how it looks, see patent registration.
The Rule 70 certificate a logo copyright application needs
If you decide to register the artwork under copyright as well, one step catches people out.
Rule 70 of the Copyright Rules, 2013 requires an application for an artistic work that is used, or capable of being used, in relation to goods or services to be accompanied by a certificate from the Registrar of Trade Marks, to the effect that no trade mark identical with or deceptively similar to the artistic work has been registered.
That certificate is a separate application to a different office: Form TM-C under Rule 22 of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017, at ₹9,000 on e-filing, or ₹30,000 for the expedited version, ordinarily issued within thirty working days. So a logo copyright registration is ₹2,000 plus ₹9,000 in government fees, and it runs on the trademark office's timeline. Anyone quoting ₹2,000 flat for a logo copyright has left the certificate out.
Ownership first. If an external designer or agency made the logo, the business that paid for it is not automatically the owner. Copyright in commissioned work needs a written assignment. Get that signed before either application goes in, or you are recording the wrong owner. See legal contract drafting for the designer's assignment and trademark assignment for transferring a mark.
Fees
Government fee
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Form TM-A, individual, startup or small enterprise, e-filing | ₹4,500 per class, per mark |
| Form TM-A, individual, startup or small enterprise, physical filing | ₹5,000 per class, per mark |
| Form TM-A, all other applicants including companies, LLPs and partnerships, e-filing | ₹9,000 per class, per mark |
| Form TM-A, all other applicants, physical filing | ₹10,000 per class, per mark |
| Reply to an examination report | No government fee |
| Show cause hearing before the Registrar | No government fee |
| Form TM-M, expedited examination | ₹20,000 for individuals, startups and small enterprises, or ₹40,000 for others, per class per mark, e-filing only |
| Form TM-C, search certificate, only if you also register the artwork under copyright | ₹9,000 per request, or ₹30,000 expedited |
The concessional ₹4,500 rate needs evidence, being small enterprise proof or Udyam registration, or DPIIT recognition through Startup India registration. If any co-applicant falls outside those categories, the ₹9,000 rate applies to the whole application. Two marks, word plus device, in one class means two fees.
Our professional fee
| What we do | Regikart fee |
|---|---|
| Review the logo, run the word and figurative searches, and tell you what to file and in which classes | Free review |
| Prepare and e-file the device mark application, with the Vienna coding and the colour position settled | Fee on quote |
| Word mark filed alongside | Our confirmed trademark filing fee is ₹2,499 per class per mark: see trademark registration |
| Objection reply, hearing, opposition, or the Form TM-C certificate for a copyright filing | Quoted in writing before we start |
Professional fees exclude GST at 18%. Government fees, where they apply, are paid at actuals to the department and are shown separately. Fees verified on 27 September 2026.
What we need from you
- The logo file, in the final version you will actually use, at print resolution. Filing a draft you are about to change is wasted money.
- What you sell, described in plain words, so the classes and the specification are right.
- Who owns the artwork, and the designer's assignment if an outside designer made it.
- Applicant details: name and address exactly as they should appear on the register, and for a company or LLP the incorporation details.
- Udyam or small enterprise proof, or DPIIT recognition, if you want the ₹4,500 rate.
- Date of first use, if you have been using the logo already, with evidence. A claim of prior use is supported by an affidavit with the evidence annexed.
- A signed authorisation, so we can act for you before the Registry.
What happens after filing
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Application number | Issued on submission. Under section 23(1) a registered mark is registered as of the date of the application, so the filing date is the date your rights run from |
| 2. Formalities check | The Registry checks the application is complete and codes the figurative elements under the Vienna Classification |
| 3. Examination | The Registrar examines the mark and a search is conducted among earlier marks, registered and applied for. Objections come in an examination report |
| 4. Reply | If the report raises objections under section 9 or section 11, you reply. Rule 33(4) gives one month from receipt of the report, and an application that is not answered may be treated as abandoned. There is no government fee for the reply: see trademark objection reply |
| 5. Hearing, if needed | Where the reply does not satisfy the Registrar, or you ask for one, there is a hearing: see trademark hearing |
| 6. Advertisement | An accepted mark is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal |
| 7. Opposition window | Any person may oppose within four months of advertisement: see trademark opposition |
| 8. Registration | Where nothing stands in the way, the mark is registered, dated back to the application date, for ten years and renewable: see trademark renewal |
We do not publish a promised time to registration, because no timeline is verified. What is fixed by law is the one-month reply window and the four-month opposition window.
When you redesign the logo
Your registration covers the device as it was represented in the application. A redesign is where logo owners quietly lose protection.
Rule 37 of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 permits correction or amendment of an application before registration, but only where it does not substantially alter the mark or introduce a specification that was not included. A materially different logo is a different mark, and it needs its own application with its own filing date.
So plan for it:
- A tidy-up of spacing, weight or line thickness usually keeps the same mark in substance. Keep the old registration alive and renew it.
- A new device, a new symbol or a changed composition is a new application. File it, and keep the old registration running while the old artwork is still in the market and on packaging.
- Never let the old mark lapse the day the new logo launches. Old stock, old signage and old listings are still trading under the old mark, and a registered mark can be removed for non-use after five years under section 47.
Mistakes we see on logo applications
- Filing only the composite logo. Section 17 then leaves the name unprotected on its own. File the word mark too: see wordmark registration.
- Filing artwork that is still in draft. The mark is what you file. A later redesign is a new application.
- Skipping the figurative search. A word-only search misses the logo that looks like yours under a different name, and that mark can be cited or used to oppose you.
- Claiming colours without a reason. Filing without a colour limitation is deemed registration for all colours under section 10(2), which is usually the broader claim.
- A device that describes the trade. A generic symbol for the industry struggles on distinctiveness under section 9.
- No designer assignment. The agency owns the artwork until it assigns it in writing.
- Using the R symbol before registration. Falsely representing a mark as registered is an offence under section 107. Use TM until the certificate issues.
- Assuming one class is enough. Rights follow the specification. A brand selling goods and running a service platform usually needs both.
Why brand owners use Regikart
Regikart is a CA and CS firm with 250+ clients. Trademark filings are prepared by our IP team and reviewed by CA Ganpat Khemka.
- We tell you what not to file. A free review that ends in "file the word mark first, the device can wait" saves you a fee. That is the review, not a sales step.
- Word and figurative search together, so the citation you would have got is found before you pay the government fee.
- Fees split before you commit. ₹4,500 or ₹9,000 per class per mark, the concession evidence you need for the lower rate, and our fee quoted in writing.
- The whole brand in one place: device mark, word mark, copyright in the artwork, and the objection or opposition work if it comes.
- Offices in Kolkata (Head Office), Delhi and Bengaluru, with clients across India served online. Call or WhatsApp +91 70444 94804, or email [email protected].
Related: trademark registration · wordmark registration · trademark search · trademark objection reply · copyright registration · trademark renewal