Status Guide
Trademark Status Exam Report Issued
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
"Exam Report Issued" means the examiner has finished reviewing your mark and has written a report on it. This is the point at which your application stops waiting and starts running on a clock. If the report raises objections, you have one month from receiving it to reply.
How this differs from "Marked for Exam"
The two statuses are often confused because they sound similar, but they are opposite in what they require from you.
Marked for Exam means your application is in the queue, waiting for an examiner. Nothing is required of you and nothing you file will speed it up.
Exam Report Issued means the examination has happened and a report exists. Something may now be required of you, and there is a deadline. The moment the status changes from one to the other is the moment the application becomes time-sensitive.
What the report contains
The report sets out whether the examiner has any objection to registering the mark. Broadly it will either raise no objection — in which case the application moves toward acceptance and advertisement — or it will cite grounds, most commonly:
- Section 9 — the mark is descriptive of the goods, or otherwise lacks distinctiveness.
- Section 11 — the mark conflicts with an earlier mark already on the register, usually cited with a list of the conflicting applications.
A report may also raise procedural points about the specification or the applicant details.
The deadline, and where it starts
Under Rule 33(4) of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017, a reply must be filed within one month from the date of receipt of the examination report. Two details matter here and are widely got wrong.
First, the month runs from receipt, not from the date printed on the report. Those are often different dates. Keep evidence of when the report actually reached you.
Second, the consequence is discretionary. The rule says the Registrar may treat the application as abandoned — not that it is automatically dead. Sections 131 and 132 allow time to be extended, and applications have been restored where the delay was properly explained. None of that is guaranteed, which is why the sensible response is to act immediately. But if a deadline has already passed, the position is worth reviewing on the facts rather than writing the mark off.
What happens next
If you reply and the examiner is satisfied, the mark is accepted and advertised in the Trade Marks Journal, which opens the four-month opposition window under Rule 42. If the reply does not fully satisfy the examiner, the application is listed for a show cause hearing, where the objection is tested in person or by video conference before the Registrar decides.