Trademark Registration
MSME and Startup Trademark Fee Concession
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Individuals, DPIIT-recognised startups and small enterprises pay ₹4,500 per class to file a trademark application online, instead of ₹9,000. It is a straight halving of the government fee, and it is the easiest saving available in the whole process.
It is also the one most often lost, for a reason that catches people out: the qualifying document has to exist at the moment you file.
Who actually qualifies
The First Schedule to the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 sets the lower fee for three categories.
An individual. A natural person filing in their own name. A sole proprietor files as an individual, so proprietorship firms get the lower rate. No certificate is required to prove you are a person.
A startup recognised by DPIIT. Recognition under the Startup India scheme, evidenced by the DPIIT recognition certificate. Being a young company is not enough on its own — recognition is a formal status you have to apply for.
A small enterprise. Defined by reference to the MSMED Act and evidenced by a valid Udyam Registration Certificate.
The trap: medium enterprises do not qualify
This is the detail most sources get wrong when they describe it as an “MSME discount”.
The Rules say small enterprise, not MSME. Micro and small enterprises fall within that limit and qualify. A medium enterprise does not, and pays the full ₹9,000 per class despite holding a perfectly valid Udyam registration.
If you are Udyam-registered, check which category your certificate actually states before assuming the lower fee applies.
The timing trap
The concession depends on your status at the date of filing, and the proof is submitted with the application.
If your Udyam registration or DPIIT recognition comes through a week after you file, the lower fee is gone for that application. There is no retrospective adjustment and no refund of the difference. If you are close to obtaining either certificate and the filing is not urgent, it is usually worth waiting.
The corollary is reassuring: the fee is assessed once, at filing. Growing beyond small-enterprise size later does not create a liability on an application already filed.
Joint applicants
Where two or more applicants file together, every applicant must qualify for the lower fee to apply.
An individual filing jointly with a private limited company pays ₹9,000, not ₹4,500, because one of the applicants does not fall in a concessional category. This surprises founders who assume their own eligibility carries the application.
What it is worth
The saving is ₹4,500 per class, and it scales with the number of classes.
A single-class filing saves ₹4,500. A three-class filing saves ₹13,500. For a business filing across a product range and its services, the concession is often the difference between protecting every class that matters and cutting the application back.
It applies to the application fee. Other government fees, such as opposition or renewal, are not halved in the same way — see the full government fee schedule.
Choosing who files
Because eligibility follows the applicant, the concession sometimes influences who should own the mark. A founder filing personally pays the individual rate, while the same mark filed by their private limited company costs double.
That said, fee is a poor reason to choose an owner. Ownership affects who can enforce the mark, what happens on a share sale, and whether the operating company needs a licence to use it. Those consequences outlast a one-time saving, so decide ownership on the merits first. Our guide to company names and trademarks covers why the two registrations are not interchangeable.
Before you file
Have the certificate in hand, check that it says micro or small rather than medium, make sure every joint applicant qualifies, and confirm your classes first, since the fee is charged per class. Work those out with the trademark class finder.