Trademark Registration in India for UAE Companies

A UAE registration has no effect in India, so the mark needs an Indian filing. The Registry examines every application on absolute and relative grounds.

Direct filing is made by an Indian trade marks agent on Form TM-A. A foreign applicant with no principal place of business in India gives an address for service in India, and that address decides which of the five Registry offices handles the file. Filing through our office in Vashi places the application with the Mumbai office. The agent is appointed on Form TM-48, which India does not generally require to be notarised or legalised, unlike a power of attorney for a UAE filing.

A Madrid designation of India is made in an international application filed through the Ministry of Economy and Tourism as office of origin. The Madrid Protocol has been in force for the UAE since 28 December 2021. The international application rests on a UAE application or registration, so the UAE filing comes first, and for five years the Indian designation depends on it. India has declared an 18-month refusal period; a refusal is answered through an Indian agent.

Priority from a UAE filing

The UAE has been a member of the Paris Convention since 1996. An Indian application filed within six months of the UAE application can claim its date under section 154 of the Trade Marks Act, with a certificate of the UAE application filed with it or within two months (rule 24).

Yes. Nothing in the Act or Rules bars an Arabic-script mark; it is examined on the same section 9 and 11 grounds as any other. Under rule 28 of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017, where a mark contains words or numbers in a script other than Hindi or English, the applicant gives a precise transliteration and translation of each word and number in English or Hindi and names the language. Form TM-A also has a field for the transliteration of the mark in roman script.

A brand with an English name and an Arabic form can file them together as one composite mark, as the label shows them, or separately. Separate filings protect each form on its own, which helps if Indian packaging carries only the English name. The examiner compares marks by sound and meaning across scripts, so the transliteration and translation become part of the record, and a clearance search should cover both forms.

UAE applicants enter India by a Paris Convention application within 12 months of the UAE priority date or through PCT national phase within 31 months. Indian practice adds Form 3 on corresponding foreign applications, the request for examination on Form 18 within 31 months of priority (applications filed from 15 March 2024) and the working statement on Form 27 once every three financial years. Section 39, the foreign filing licence rule, matters only where an inventor is resident in India.

No. The India–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was signed on 18 February 2022 and has been in force since 1 May 2022. Its Chapter 11 sets intellectual property commitments between the two governments, among them protection of well-known marks, the Nice Classification, multi-class applications, a term of at least ten years, a 12-month patent grace period for an applicant’s own disclosures, and cooperation between the IP offices. These are not filing rules: a UAE company still files under the Trade Marks Act and Rules, by the routes above.

Bilateral merchandise trade reached US$101.25 billion in 2025-26 (PIB, 15 May 2026), and the Ministry of External Affairs describes the UAE as India’s third-largest trading partner (bilateral brief, April 2026).