Trademark application stuck? One RTI to CGPDTM

The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) runs the Trade Marks Registry through five offices — Mumbai (headquarters), Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad. It is a government office under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, which makes it a public authority under §2(h) of the RTI Act: its file on your application is disclosable to you.

The registry's own published timelines are ambitious, and practice runs slower — first examination reports in ordinary matters typically take several months, and the queue after your reply to objections can be longer than the examination itself. That gap between the calendar you planned around and the queue you are actually in is exactly what an RTI measures.

• The one-month trap. Under Rule 33(4) of the Trade Marks Rules 2017, if you do not reply to the examination report (the First Examination Report, FER) within one month of receiving it, the Registrar may treat the application as abandoned. Your own deadlines are short and hard; the registry's are elastic. The RTI exists to pull the registry's side back into view.
• The stages. Filing → examination (FER issued) → your reply → show-cause hearing if needed → advertisement in the Trade Marks Journal → opposition window (about four months) → registration. The whole journey commonly runs one to three years in unopposed matters.
• What the registry publishes. Status and journal entries are on the IP India portals — tmrsearch and the e-filing modules at ipindia.gov.in. Read that first; the RTI is for the file behind the status word.

To,
The Public Information Officer,
Office of the Trade Marks Registry [Mumbai/Delhi/Kolkata/
Chennai/Ahmedabad], [address].

Subject: Application under section 6(1) of the RTI Act 2005 —
status of trademark application No. [NUMBER]

Sir/Madam,

Kindly provide, from the records held by your office in
respect of the above application for the mark [MARK] in
class [CLASS], filed on [DATE] by [APPLICANT]:

1. The present stage of the application, with the date on
   which each stage was completed: examination, FER issue,
   reply consideration, show-cause hearing, advertisement.
2. The date the file was allocated to an examiner, and the
   date the examination report was due as per the norms
   applied by the office.
3. If the FER has issued and a reply was filed on [DATE]:
   the date the reply was taken up for consideration and
   its present position.
4. The expected date of the next action in the matter, as
   recorded.
5. If advertised in the Trade Marks Journal: the journal
   date and part, and the last date for opposition.
6. The pendency of examination matters before the office,
   as on the last quarter.

Payment of Rs 10 is made by [IPO/DD/online reference].

Yours faithfully,
[Name, full address, phone, email, date]

• Awaiting examination — ask questions 1, 2 and 6. The allocation date is the tell; it converts “backlog” into a dated record.
• FER issued, reply filed, no movement — ask question 3, with your reply date quoted. Consideration queues are the least visible stage.
• Show-cause hearing pending — ask for the hearing queue position and the last date hearings were held for your class of matters.
• Advertised, opposition filed — the opposition runs on its own Rules clock with affidavits and evidence; ask for the dates of the opposition stages served so far, and take legal advice for the substance.
• Registered, renewal due — renewals run in ten-year blocks; ask for the recorded renewal dates and any restoration record if a renewal was missed.

• Day 31, no reply — first appeal under §19(1) to CGPDTM's First Appellate Authority, free of cost.
• Day 76 onwards — second appeal under §19(3) to the Central Information Commission.
• Parallel route — grievances also go through the CPGRAMS portal, which routes to DPIIT; note the ticket number and ask for action taken on it in the RTI.

• Filing to the wrong registry office. Applications sit in the office of the applicant's address for service — check your filing receipt, and let §6(3) do the transfer if unsure.
• Asking “when will my trademark be registered?” — a prediction question. Ask for recorded dates and stages.
• Missing your own FER reply month while chasing the registry's delay. Rule 33(4) abandons the application, not the backlog.
• Not quoting the application number and class — the PIO cannot locate the file without them.
• Expecting the RTI to argue merits of refusal. It reads the file; the reply to objections and any hearing argue the case.

Yes — a government office under DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and a public authority under §2(h).

Question 2 asks for the allocation record; offices sometimes sever the officer's name under §10 while disclosing the dates. The dates are what move the file.

Practice in ordinary matters runs to several months for the first examination report, longer for the queue after your reply. The RTI reply gives you your file's own dates, which beats any average.

The one-month window to reply to the examination report under Rule 33(4). Everything you miss on the registry's side is recoverable by appeal; this one abandons the application.

Registration lasts ten years, renewable for further ten-year blocks on payment of the renewal fee, with restoration possible if a renewal is missed within the prescribed window.

The AI RTI Drafter builds this application from your application details, and the First Appeal Builder writes the day-31 appeal.

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• Trade Marks Act 1999 and Trade Marks Rules 2017, official text: ipindia.gov.in/tm-rules-2017 (Rule 33(4) — one-month reply window)
• IP India portals: ipindia.gov.in and the Trade Marks Registry search and journal pages
• RTI Act 2005, §2(h), §6(1), §7(1), §19: cic.gov.in

Last reviewed: 27 August 2026. The Rules citation checked against the official text hosted by IP India. The earlier version's “CGPDTM Service Quality Charter” examination SLA and a 2018 CIC decision could not be verified and have been removed; the one-month Rule 33(4) window is the verified statutory hook.