Trademark Renewal in India

Last updated: 14 November 2026  ·  9 min read

How long a trademark lasts

A registered trademark in India is valid for 10 years from the date of application. It can be renewed for further 10-year periods, again and again, for as long as you keep renewing and keep using the mark.

Ten years is long enough to forget. Brands change hands, owners change address and the original agent may no longer be around. Put the expiry date in a calendar the day you receive your certificate.

Notice the starting point. The ten years run from the date you applied, and applications commonly take many months to reach registration. So the certificate in your file is always "younger" than the registration it records. Take a hypothetical owner who applied in March 2017 and received the certificate in mid-2018. Her renewal falls due in March 2027, not in 2028. People who count from the certificate date end up late without knowing it.

Renewal is also the cheapest thing you will ever do for the brand. Compare it with the alternative: a fresh application, a new examination, possibly a new objection, a wait of many months, and the loss of an early filing date that may be older than every competitor's. That old date is the real asset. Renewal is how you keep it.

How to find your expiry date

If you have the application number, the public register on the IP India website shows the status of the mark and the date up to which it is valid. You can also use our trademark status check, or send us the number and we will look it up.

If you do not have the number, it is printed on the registration certificate and on the filing receipt. Failing that, a search of the register by brand name and class will usually find it.

While you are there, read the whole entry and not only the date. Check the owner's name, the address, the class and the description of goods. Errors and outdated details are easier to fix before renewal than in the middle of a dispute.

The Registry is meant to send a notice before a registration expires. Do not depend on it. It goes to the address on record, which after a decade is very often an office you left or an agent you no longer use.

How renewal works

You renew each class separately. You can renew some classes and let others lapse, so decide which ones you still use.

On timing, the sensible approach is to file as soon as the Rules allow and not in the final fortnight. Nothing is gained by waiting. The new term is counted from the old expiry date whenever you file, so an early filing costs you no time, and it leaves room to fix a problem with the owner's name or a payment that fails on the portal.

As for cost, the government fee is charged per class and depends on how the form is filed. We are deliberately not quoting a figure here because the schedule is revised from time to time. Check the current IP India fee schedule, and see our guide to trademark costs for how official and professional fees fit together.

Sort these out before you renew

The form itself is short. What takes time is everything that has changed since the original filing. Go through these four questions.

Has the owner changed?

A proprietorship became a private limited company. A partner retired. The founder died and the children now run the business. The brand was sold along with the factory. In each case the register still shows the old owner until someone files a request to record the change, with the supporting deed or succession documents. Renewal should be filed by the true current owner, so start the ownership paperwork well ahead. It is slower than the renewal.

Has the address changed?

Notices go to the address on the register. Update it. This is a small filing and it prevents the most common reason people miss things.

Are you still using the mark for those goods?

The renewal form does not currently ask you to prove use. That does not make use irrelevant. A registered mark that has not been used for a long continuous period, around five years under the Act, can be attacked by someone who wants it removed for non-use. If you have stopped using the mark for some goods, renewing those classes preserves the entry but does not make it safe. Keep a few dated invoices and photographs from each year in a folder. You may never need them. If you do, you will need them badly.

Is the mark on the register the mark you use today?

Pull out the image that was filed ten years ago and put it next to your current packaging. If the logo has been redrawn, the colours changed or a word added, the registration protects the old version. Small updates may not matter. A real redesign calls for a new application for the current logo, alongside the renewal of the old one. If the plain word mark was never filed, this is a good moment to do it. See name or logo first for the reasoning.

Three common situations (hypothetical)

These are made-up cases of the kind that come up again and again at renewal time.

The family firm

A namkeen business in Indore registered its brand in the name of a partnership of two brothers. One brother has since died and the firm was reconstituted with his son. Nobody told the Registry. With the renewal a few months away, the family should first gather the old and new partnership deeds and file to record the change, then renew in the name of the firm as it now stands. Leaving the register as it is and renewing anyway may get the fee accepted, but it stores up trouble for the day the mark has to be enforced or sold.

The agent who cannot be reached

A boutique owner in Kochi filed through a consultant who has since shut shop. She has no certificate, only an old email. The application number in that email is enough. From it, the status, the expiry date and the address on record can all be read off the register. A new agent can then come on record with a fresh power of attorney and file the renewal. The old agent's consent is not what holds things up. Finding the number is.

The brand that grew

A Ludhiana company registered its mark for hosiery. Over ten years it added sportswear, then shoes, then a line of bags, and opened its own stores. Renewal will protect the hosiery registration and nothing more. Footwear may sit in the same class as clothing, but bags and retail services fall in other classes, and those need new applications. The class finder shows where each product belongs, and a search before filing shows whether someone else got there first.

If you miss the date

Missing the date does not always mean the end of the mark, but it makes things harder.

• Shortly after expiry: a late renewal is generally possible for a limited period if you pay an additional surcharge.
• After that: if the mark has been removed from the register, it can sometimes be restored on application, at higher cost and with no certainty.
• Left too long: the mark is free for anyone to apply for, and you may need to file a fresh application.

The exact time limits are set by the Trade Marks Rules. If your date has passed, speak to an agent this week.

What does a fresh application cost you, beyond the fee? You go back to the start of the queue. Your new filing date is today's date, so any business that applied for a similar name in the years between now stands ahead of you. The examiner looks at the mark afresh and may raise objections that were never raised the first time. And until the new registration comes through, you cannot use the ® symbol for that mark. Our note on TM and ® explains why that matters.

If you carried on using the brand throughout, you still have the rights that come from use and reputation. They are real, but proving them is slow and expensive compared with producing a certificate. We cover this in how unregistered marks are protected.

What renewal does and does not do

Renewal keeps the existing registration alive for another ten years, with its original filing date. That is all, and it is a lot.

It does not:

• extend protection to new goods, services or classes;
• cover a new logo, a new spelling or a new tagline;
• correct the owner's name or address on its own;
• protect the mark outside India;
• stop other people from filing similar marks.

The last point surprises owners. The Registry does not police the register for you. If someone applies for a lookalike mark, it is published in the Trade Marks Journal and it is up to you to notice and oppose it in time. A trademark watch does the noticing. For a brand that has earned ten years of goodwill, it is worth having.

What to do this week

1. Find the application number for every mark your business owns. Check old emails, certificates and invoices from whoever filed them.
2. Look up each one and write down the valid-up-to date, the owner name and the address shown.
3. Put each date in a shared calendar with reminders twelve, six and three months ahead.
4. Where the owner or address is out of date, ask an agent what needs to be filed and what documents are required.
5. Lay the registered logo next to your current one. Decide whether a new application is needed.
6. List the products and services you have added since filing, and check which classes they fall in.

Before you file: a quick checklist

• Application or registration number
• Current owner name and address, matching the register
• List of classes you still use
• Power of attorney if an agent files for you
• Documents for any change of ownership that has not yet been recorded
• The current fee, confirmed on the IP India fee schedule

Frequently asked questions