Madrid Protocol Trademark Filing from India: Process, Fees and the Mistakes That Cost Countries

A Pune skincare brand sells on its own website and on Indian marketplaces. This year it signed a UK distributor, a Dubai retailer wants stock, and the founder plans to start selling in the US. Her question to us was simple: can one trademark filing from India cover all of it?

Largely, yes. Madrid Protocol trademark filing from India lets you use your Indian application or registration as the base for protection in more than a hundred countries, through one form filed with the Indian Trade Marks Registry. This guide explains who can file, what it costs, what happens after filing, and the handful of mistakes that quietly cost brands whole countries.

Quick answer

India has been part of the Madrid Protocol since 8 July 2013. An Indian national, a person domiciled in India, or a business with a real and effective establishment here can file one international application on WIPO form MM2(E), online through the Indian Trade Marks Registry, based on an Indian trademark application or registration. The Registry charges a ₹5,000 handling fee; WIPO's fees are paid separately in Swiss francs, starting with a basic fee of CHF 653 (CHF 903 for a colour mark) plus a fee per country. Each country examines the mark under its own law within 12 or 18 months of WIPO's notification, and for five years the international registration depends on the Indian mark.

Who can file from India, and what you need first

Chapter IVA of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (sections 36A to 36G) gives effect to the Madrid Protocol in India and came into force on 8 July 2013, the day India's membership took effect. You file under section 36D.

Three conditions have to line up before an Indian business can use the system:

• Entitlement. You must be a citizen of India, domiciled in India, or have a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment here (section 36B and Article 2 of the Protocol). An Indian company, LLP or proprietorship qualifies.
• A basic mark in India. You need an Indian trademark application under section 18 or a registration under section 23. It can still be pending.
• An exact match. The applicant must be the same person as the owner of the basic mark, the mark must be the same, and the goods and services must be covered by the Indian list. The Registrar certifies exactly this before anything goes to WIPO (section 36D(4)).

Two practical points. File the international application within six months of your Indian application and you can claim the Indian date as priority, which matters if someone files a similar mark abroad in the meantime. And you cannot designate India itself; your Indian protection comes from the basic mark. If you are still choosing the name, run a trademark search in India and your target countries first: a basic mark that later fails takes the international registration down with it.

Filing the MM2 through the Indian Trade Marks Registry

You cannot file directly with WIPO: under Rule 11(7) of the Common Regulations, an application sent straight to WIPO by the applicant is not treated as an international application. From India it goes electronically through the Trade Marks Registry as office of origin (rules 65 to 67 of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017).

1. Prepare form MM2(E), WIPO's international application form, in English. It identifies the Indian basic mark, any colour claim, the goods and services by class and the countries you designate, and it can limit the list for particular countries.
2. Add the country-specific pieces. Designating the US needs form MM18, a declaration of bona fide intention to use the mark. Designating the EU needs a second language for the EU office, chosen from French, German, Italian and Spanish.
3. File online through IP India's international application system with the ₹5,000 handling fee under entry 23 of the First Schedule. Physical filing is not allowed. Older material still quotes ₹2,000; that figure came from the repealed 2002 Rules.
4. The Registry checks and certifies. The Registrar compares the MM2 with the Indian record and, if it matches, certifies it and forwards it to WIPO within two months of receipt (rule 66). If not, it issues a notice and holds the application until you comply.
5. Pay WIPO directly in Swiss francs. The Indian Registry collects only its own handling fee.

If you have not filed in India yet, start with our step-by-step guide to trademark registration in India.

What WIPO charges, and why the calculator matters

WIPO's fees are set by the Schedule of Fees under the Common Regulations, unchanged since 1 February 2023. They cover ten years and come in three layers:

• Basic fee: CHF 653, or CHF 903 if any reproduction of the mark is in colour.
• Complementary and supplementary fees: CHF 100 for each designated country that takes the standard fee, plus CHF 100 for each class beyond three. The supplementary fee is not charged if every country you designate takes an individual fee.
• Individual fees: many members, including the US, UK, EU, UAE, Japan, China and Australia, charge their own designation fee instead, often per class. They change with exchange rates and national fee revisions.

Because individual fees move, do not rely on a total you saw in a blog post, including this one. Run the WIPO Fee Calculator on the day you file, and budget separately for local counsel in any country that objects.

What happens after you file

WIPO formalities and the registration date

WIPO checks formalities, classification and the wording of the goods and services. Problems come back as irregularities. Most must be fixed within three months; if they are not, the application is treated as abandoned and WIPO keeps half the basic fee (Rule 11). Vague terms are a frequent trigger (Rule 13).

If WIPO receives the application within two months of the date the Indian Registry received it, the international registration takes that Indian receipt date (Article 3(4) of the Protocol). WIPO then records the mark, publishes it in the WIPO Gazette of International Marks, and notifies each designated office.

Examination in each country

Each designated office examines the mark under its own law. It has 12 months from WIPO's notification to issue a provisional refusal, or 18 months where the country has declared the longer period; some also allow refusals based on oppositions after that. The US, UK, EU, UAE and India have all declared 18 months.

A provisional refusal is not the end. It sets a response deadline of at least two months, and many offices require a local representative; in the US, foreign-domiciled applicants must use a US-licensed attorney. When an office finishes, it sends WIPO a statement of grant of protection, for all the goods or those that survived. If it lets the refusal period pass without objecting, the mark is protected there as if that office had registered it.

Five years of dependency, and the rest of the mark's life

Dependency and central attack. For five years from the international registration date, its fate is tied to the Indian basic mark. If the Indian application is withdrawn or finally refused, or the registration is cancelled or expires, for all or some goods, protection falls away to the same extent in every designated country (section 36D(5) and Article 6(3)). Proceedings started within the five years still count even if they are decided later. That is why an opposition or rectification in India can work as a central attack on your foreign rights.

Transformation. If the international registration is cancelled this way, you have three months to file national applications in the designated countries for the same goods. They keep the international registration date (Article 9quinquies), but you pay national fees and local counsel all over again.

Subsequent designations. You can add countries later (Article 3ter), for a WIPO basic fee of CHF 300 plus the designation fees. A country added later runs only to the end of the current ten-year term, so everything shares one renewal date.

Changes. Name or address changes, assignments and limitations are recorded at WIPO with one request for all countries (CHF 150 for a name or address change, CHF 177 for a transfer or limitation). A transfer can be recorded only to an owner who is itself entitled to use the Madrid system (Article 9).

Renewal. The registration lasts ten years and is renewed at WIPO, with a six-month grace period on payment of a surcharge (section 36G and Article 7). The Indian registration is renewed separately in India, and US protection obtained through Madrid also needs a USPTO declaration of use between the fifth and sixth years after US registration and every ten years after that.

Madrid or direct national filings?

Here is how the two routes compare on the points that usually decide it:

When filing directly is the better call

• The country is not in the system. WIPO counts 117 members covering 133 countries, with Saudi Arabia's membership taking effect on 8 October 2026. WIPO's list of Madrid members does not include Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kuwait, South Africa, Nigeria or Argentina, and a China designation does not cover Hong Kong or Macao. These need national filings.
• Your Indian base is shaky. If the Indian application faces an objection or an opposition, a Madrid filing built on it carries that risk for five years. Either settle the Indian position first or file nationally in the markets that matter most.
• The US is your main market. The USPTO applies its own standards to the wording of goods and services, and your Madrid list cannot go beyond the Indian one. A direct US filing lets you draft to US practice from the start.
• The mark needs to change by country. An Arabic-script version for the Gulf or a different owner per region cannot ride on the Indian basic mark unless that exact mark is filed in India too.
• Only one or two countries matter. Madrid's advantages grow with the number of countries; for a single market, a national filing avoids the dependency period altogether.

Worked example: a D2C skincare brand going to the US, UK, EU and UAE

Back to the Pune brand; call it Brand S. It sells face serums and creams under a colour logo. This is how we would run it.

1. Fix the basic mark. The Indian Class 3 application was filed in the founder's name before incorporation. Record the assignment to the company in India first, so the Madrid applicant and the Indian owner match.
2. Clean the specification. Pick specific terms from the Indian list (serums, face creams, cleansers). Vague wording draws WIPO irregularities and US objections, and the list cannot be widened later.
3. Decide on classes. If online retail services in Class 35 matter abroad, Class 35 must first be covered by an Indian application.
4. Prepare the MM2 designating the US, UK, EU and UAE, with the colour claim matching the Indian record, form MM18 for the US, and a second language for the EU.
5. File through IP India with the ₹5,000 handling fee, then pay WIPO once the Registry transmits the application.
6. Diary the deadlines: WIPO irregularities (three months), each office's refusal deadline, the US declaration of use, and the fifth anniversary, when dependency ends.

Indicative WIPO fees for one class and a colour mark, taken from WIPO's Schedule of Fees and its individual fee table (last updated 23 August 2026):

No complementary or supplementary fee applies, because all four designations take individual fees. A black-and-white logo brings the total to CHF 3,562. Add the ₹5,000 Indian handling fee, professional fees and any local counsel costs. Note the UAE: CHF 1,420 per class, and every extra class there adds the same again. Treat this as a starting point and check it in the calculator before you commit.

The mistakes that cost countries

These are the slips that cost designations:

• Owner mismatch. The founder owns the Indian mark and the company files the MM2. The Registry cannot certify it.
• Forgetting MM18. If the US declaration of intention to use is missing or defective and not put right within two months, the US designation is treated as not made (Rule 11(6)). Adding the US later means a subsequent designation and fresh fees.
• Missing a three-month irregularity deadline. The whole application is abandoned and half the basic fee is lost.
• Ignoring a provisional refusal. If nobody responds, the refusal is likely to be confirmed for that country, while the others carry on.
• Letting the Indian mark slip in the first five years. An abandoned application or a lost opposition in India cuts the international registration everywhere.
• Assuming China covers Hong Kong, or that the EU covers the UK. Neither does.

How MYCrave can help

MYCrave Consultancy & Services works on the Indian side of Madrid filings and the follow-through abroad:

• Basic mark review and filing: checking the ownership, specification and status of your Indian mark before it becomes the base;
• MM2 preparation and filing through the Indian Trade Marks Registry, including MM18 for the US and the EU language choice;
• Class and specification planning, so the Indian list is written with the foreign filings in mind;
• Deadline and portfolio management for irregularities, provisional refusals, the five-year dependency period and renewals at WIPO;
• Coordination with local counsel when a designated office issues a provisional refusal.

Get the Indian mark right, then go abroad

Madrid suits Indian brands because it turns a stack of foreign filings into one form, one payment and one renewal date. But for five years every one of those foreign rights rests on a single Indian application, and on a list of goods that can never grow beyond it.

So put the effort in at home first: the right owner, a clean specification, and a basic mark that can survive objection and opposition. Get that right and the international filing is mostly paperwork. Get it wrong and you find out one country at a time.

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