Maharashtra, Karnataka startups make for 40% IPRs, trademarks in 3 years

Startups from Maharashtra and Karnataka are leading the registration of trademarks, one of the vital intellectual property rights of businesses in India. The government data shows that the two states account for almost 40 per cent of the trademark registrations by the startups filed over the last three years.

As of February 28, the startups from across the country have applied for 13,703 trademarks while 6,353 of them have been granted, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The rest of the states also have their fair share of trademark registrations apart from the leading two.

What is trademark?

It is the word or phrase or product shape or logo of the business that gives the company a unique identity backed by legal support to sell their goods and services in the market. The trademarks are registered under the Trademarks Act, 1999 as per the Indian Constitution. It gives a registered company legal protection upon illegal use of their trademark.

Under the Startup India scheme, the Centre has reduced the trademark fees by 50 per cent for the applications filed by the startups. They can also get an additional 10 per cent discount if the application is filed through online procedure, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Other intellectual property right-related benefits include an 80 per cent rebate on the filing of the patents. The state-wise data on patents is not available as of date. However, as of March 10, a total of 5,253 patent applications have been filed by startups in India.

According to the latest data, India has 40,729 registered startups.

The state-wise breakup of the new trademark registrations by startups shows that the highest 3,162 applications came from Maharashtra followed by Karnataka with 2,309 applications. Delhi ranked third with 2,295 applications. These three states account for more than half of these applications. Haryana (988 applications), Tamil Nadu (813), Gujarat (768) and, Telangana (683) are the other states to have more than 500 trademark applications. Four of seven northeastern states — Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura — have filed for 37 trademarks of startups.

The most populous Uttar Pradesh has more than a thousand applications as of February.

The granting of the trademark takes about seven months of time post which the applicant gets full legal protection. Out of the total 13,703 applications, about 47 per cent or 6,553 applicants have been granted the trademark while the rest of the applications are under process.

The central government has also provided the service of the facilitators, persons to assist with the trademark application process, to the startups. About 2,546 applications have been filed through these facilitators in the last four years.ps from Maharashtra and Karnataka are leading the registration of trademarks, one of the vital intellectual property rights of the businesses in India. The government data shows that the two states account for almost 40 per cent of the trademark registrations by the startups filed over the last three years.