Trademark Filing Trends and Total Applications
India has seen a surge in trademark filing volumes over the past two decades. Annual filings quintupled from about 84,000 applications in 2000–01 to 466,580 applications in 2022–23. In recent years, India consistently files nearly 0.5 million (5 lakh) trademark applications per year, making it the 3rd highest filing jurisdiction globally (after China and the US). This rapid growth reflects strong domestic business activity – over 95% of filings are by Indian applicants.
Cumulatively, the Indian Trade Marks Registry has processed several million applications since its inception. For context, about 11.97 lakh trademarks were registered in the 75 years up to 2015. Remarkably, another ~11.62 lakh trademarks were registered in just the four years 2016–2020, nearly matching the previous 75-year total. By 2021, India had surpassed 2.3 million total trademark registrations. Given that not all applications mature to registration, the total number of applications filed so far is even higher, likely well over 4 million to date (with ~0.5 million new applications now added each year). This underscores an unprecedented expansion in trademark activity in India.
Year-wise Trademark Filings and Registrations (Last 5 Years)
The table below provides a year-wise breakdown of trademark applications filed in India and registrations issued in the last five fiscal years (FY2018–19 through FY2022–23):
| Year (FY) | Applications Filed | Registrations Issued |
| 2018–19 | 323,798 | 316,798 |
| 2019–20 | 334,805 | 294,172 |
| 2020–21 | 431,213 | 255,993 |
| 2021–22 | 447,805 | ~261,000 (≈2.61 lakh; 2.1% ↑ vs. 2020–21) |
| 2022–23 | 466,580 | ~232,000 (≈2.32 lakh; 11.3% ↓ vs. 2021–22) |
Notes: Figures are for fiscal years (April–March). Registration counts for 2021–22 and 2022–23 are approximate, inferred from official growth rates.
As shown, trademark filings have grown each year, reaching 466,580 in 2022–23. In contrast, registrations per year have plateaued around 2.5–3 lakh since 2016. Notably, a record 316,798 registrations were issued in 2018–19 after a major backlog cleanup, but this dropped to ~232k in 2022–23. Over the five-year period, India saw roughly 2.0 million applications filed versus 1.36 million registrations granted. This yields an overall application-to-registration ratio of about 68% (i.e. roughly two-thirds of filed applications have matured to registration so far). The remaining one-third are either pending examination/opposition or have been refused/abandoned. Yearly ratios have fluctuated: for example, in FY2019–20 about 88% of that year’s filings were registered (294k of 335k), whereas in FY2020–21 only ~59% were (256k of 431k) due to a pandemic slowdown. The recent decline in the registration-to-filing ratio indicates a growing pendency – filings are outpacing disposals, leading to an accumulating backlog of pending applications.
Common Causes of Delays or Bottlenecks
Despite improvements, several factors can delay or stall trademark applications in India:
- Examination Objections: After a new application passes formalities, it undergoes substantive examination on absolute and relative grounds. If the Examiner finds conflicts or deficiencies, an Examination Report is issued with objections. The applicant must respond within 30 days. If objections are not overcome in the written response, a show-cause hearing is scheduled. These steps add months to the timeline. Repeated or complex objections (e.g. on similarity to existing marks or descriptiveness) can prolong prosecution. In practice, about 50% of applications are now accepted at first examination (up sharply from only 7% in earlier years), reflecting process reforms. However, the remaining half require hearings or follow-up, introducing delays.
- Oppositions: Once an application is accepted, it is published in the Trade Marks Journal for a 4-month opposition period. Third-party oppositions are a major source of delay. If any opposition is filed, the application enters a quasi-judicial proceeding (pleadings, evidence, and hearing stages) that can take several months or even years to resolve. Opposition backlog is significant – as of 2020, about 200,000 oppositions were pending before the Registry, contributing heavily to delays in final registration. The Delhi High Court has even intervened, directing the Trade Marks Registry to address this mounting backlog. If an application faces opposition, the registration remains on hold until the dispute is decided (which, given the volume of pending cases, can be a multi-year wait in contested cases).
- Formalities Check Failures: Immediately upon filing, each application undergoes a formality check to ensure all required information, documents, translations, fee, power of attorney, etc., are in order. Applications with deficiencies (missing documents, incorrect details, class specification errors, etc.) are often marked as “Formalities Chk Fail,” meaning the process halts until the applicant rectifies the issues. Common formalities problems include incomplete specifications or not submitting a requested document. In some cases, even after an applicant responds, the system may still flag the application (as seen in a recent case where an application was stuck in “Formalities Chk Fail” due to a repeated request to amend the description, despite the applicant’s earlier compliance). Such redundant procedural hurdles and compliance paperwork (via Form TM-M) can delay progress and add cost if not handled properly. Ensuring the initial application is error-free and promptly addressing any formality objections with a clear compliance report can help avoid this stalling.
- Resource and Process Bottlenecks: The staffing shortage at the Trade Marks Registry is an underlying cause of delays. There are only ~164 trademark examiners/officers in India (vs. 718 in the US), which limits how many hearings and oppositions can be disposed in a given time. Thus, even though first examination pendency is now under 1 month for new filings, bottlenecks occur at later stages (hearings, oppositions) due to limited officers to dispose of cases. In 2020, around 450,000 applications were pending at various stages of the registration process. The IP Office has implemented measures like end-to-end e-filing, videoconference hearings, automated certificate issuance, and stricter timelines to tackle delays. These have yielded improvements (e.g. new applications are examined on average in 30–40 days, and registration certificates are now auto-issued within weeks after publication if unopposed). Nonetheless, contested matters (hearings and oppositions) remain slow, and the pendency of disposal – especially for opposed applications – continues to be a challenge. In summary, examination objections and hearings, opposition proceedings, and initial formalities issues are the most common reasons an application might get stuck or delayed in the Indian system.
Most Populated Trademark Classes
India uses the Nice Classification system (Classes 1–34 for goods and 35–45 for services). Certain classes dominate filings, reflecting the country’s industry trends. The most heavily populated trademark class in India is Class 5, which covers pharmaceutical, veterinary and sanitary products. Pharmaceuticals form a huge sector in India, and Class 5 alone accounts for roughly 13–15% of all trademark applications in recent years – by far the largest share for any single class. Following Class 5, the next busiest is Class 35, which covers business services (advertising, retail, office functions, etc.), representing about 8–10% of filings.
These two classes consistently top the charts:
- Class 5 (Pharmaceuticals & related) – ~12.95% of all registrations in 2021–22 (15.12% of filings in 2019–20). This reflects India’s large number of drug, healthcare, and FMCG companies protecting product names.
- Class 35 (Advertising, Business Management) – ~8.41% of total registrations in 2021–22 (10.18% of filings in 2019–20). This high share is due to the multitude of businesses registering trade names for services like retail, marketing, and corporate consultancy.
Other classes with significant application volumes include those related to technology and consumer goods – for example, Class 9 (computer software, electronics), Class 25 (clothing and apparel), Class 41 (education, entertainment services), and Class 42 (IT and scientific services) – though each of these individually has a smaller percentage of the total compared to Classes 5 and 35. The dominance of Class 5 and 35 is consistently noted in annual reports. For instance, the IPO Annual Report for 2021–22 highlighted that Class 5 had the most filings, contributing about 1/8 of all applications, followed by Class 35 at roughly 1/12 of the total. This indicates that pharma/medical brands and business service marks are the most crowded spaces in the Indian trademark register.
Sources
- Office of the CGPDTM – Annual Reports (2019–20 through 2022–23)
- Press and analysis of IP India data (FactChecker/IndiaSpend, 2021); European IP Helpdesk (2022, 2024); Patent Lawyer Magazine (2023); RNA IP Attorneys (2023).
- Clarivate/TOI Global Filing Ranking (2025).
- Delhi High Court & EU IPO observations on pendency.
- Illustrative case of procedural delay (Pankaj Kumar, 2024).
- LexOrbis IP Report Highlights (2019–20).
