For many years, trade mark applicants in India have been told the same thing when an examination report arrives and the one-month response period passes: the Registry accepts late replies in practice, so file the reply and the application will proceed.
That advice can no longer be given without qualification. The Trade Marks Registry is now issuing formal notices under section 132 of the Trade Marks Act 1999 in applications where examination reports remain unanswered. The notices observed so far allow ten days to respond. If no reply is filed and no hearing is requested within that time, the application is treated as abandoned. The informal flexibility of earlier years is being withdrawn, and faster than many applicants and practitioners appreciate.
What the Law Provides
Rule 33: the one-month response period
Under rule 33 of the Trade Marks Rules 2017, the Registrar examines each application and communicates any objections to acceptance in an examination report. Rule 33(4) requires the applicant to respond, or to request a hearing, within one month of receiving the report. If the applicant does not do so, the Registrar may treat the application as abandoned.
Two features of this provision matter. First, the one-month period has always been the rule. Every examination report states it, and every report warns that if no reply is received or hearing requested within time, the application may be treated as abandoned for lack of prosecution under section 132. Second, the rule is framed in discretionary terms: the Registrar "may" treat the application as abandoned. For years that discretion was exercised in the applicant's favour by default. Late replies were taken on record and applications continued to be processed.
Section 132: abandonment after notice
Section 132 of the Act provides that where, in the Registrar's opinion, an applicant is in default in the prosecution of an application, the Registrar may, by notice, require the applicant to remedy the default within a specified time. After giving the applicant an opportunity of being heard, if the applicant asks for one, the Registrar may treat the application as abandoned unless the default is remedied within that time.
Abandonment for failure to answer an examination report is therefore not automatic. The statute contemplates three steps: a notice, a period to remedy the default, and a hearing on request. What the statute leaves to the Registrar is the length of the period. In the notices currently being issued, that period is ten days.
The contrast with oppositions
Practitioners familiar with opposition proceedings will recognise a stricter model. Under section 21(2) of the Act, read with rule 44, an applicant must file a counter-statement within two months of receiving the notice of opposition. If it is not filed, the applicant is deemed to have abandoned the application. That consequence follows from the statute itself, without any further notice, and the time limit has consistently been treated as strict.
The examination stage is different in law. Abandonment there is discretionary and notice-based. That difference explains why the Registry's tightening of practice has taken the form of Section 132 notices rather than immediate abandonment. It also means applicants receive a final opportunity, but a short one.
What Has Changed in Registry Practice
Reminder emails
The first visible change was reminder emails sent before examination report deadlines expired. They now arrive at intervals of roughly seven to fifteen days. Applicants used to receiving no communication from the Registry between the examination report and the next stage may treat these as an administrative courtesy. Read alongside what has followed, they are better understood as a countdown.
Formal Section 132 notices
The Registry is now issuing Section 132 notices in applications where examination reports have gone unanswered, including reports issued months or years earlier. Each notice gives ten days from its date to file a substantive reply or request a hearing. If neither happens, an abandonment order follows and the status on the IP India database is updated.
Filing the response correctly
The notices specify the filing route on the Comprehensive eFiling Services portal: Miscellaneous Reply, then "Letter related to Notice U/s 132" (the MIS132 filing). A reply filed under a different head may still reach the record, but it risks not being linked to the notice in the electronic workflow. With a ten-day window, there is no room for a dispute about whether a reply was properly filed. Use the designated route.
Key point: A Section 132 notice allows ten days. File a substantive reply to the examination report, or a hearing request, through Miscellaneous Reply → Letter related to Notice U/s 132, and keep the filing acknowledgement.
Two Recent Matters
Two applications handled in the course of recent prosecution work illustrate the practice. Both are anonymised.
In the first, an application in Class 43 for food and beverage services had an examination report pending for more than two years. A Section 132 notice was issued in January 2026, a substantive reply was filed within days, and the application was accepted shortly afterwards. The long delay before the notice was not treated as a separate ground against the applicant. Once a genuine reply was on record, the Registry proceeded on the merits.
In the second, an application in Class 25 received an examination report in December 2020. A Section 132 notice was issued on 21 December 2025. No reply was filed, and an abandonment order was passed on 5 February 2026.
The difference between the two outcomes had nothing to do with the strength of the marks or the nature of the objections. It turned entirely on whether a reply was filed within the period stated in the notice.
The notices are also being issued in batches as the Registry works through its backlog of dormant applications. Any unanswered examination report in a portfolio should be assumed to be part of a forthcoming batch.
If an Application Has Already Been Abandoned
An abandonment order is not always the end of the matter, but the remaining routes are narrow:
- Defective service. Section 132 requires notice and, on request, a hearing. Where the examination report or the notice was not served at the address for service or email address on record, or the objections were never properly communicated, the abandonment order may be challenged. High Courts have set aside abandonment orders made in these circumstances as contrary to section 132 and to natural justice.
- Review and appeal. The Registrar has power to review his own decisions on an application made in the prescribed manner (section 127(c)). An appeal against an order of the Registrar lies to the High Court under section 91 within three months of the date on which the order is communicated.
- Extension of time. Section 131, read with rule 109, allows the Registrar to extend time for sufficient cause on an application in Form TM-M, for a period not exceeding one month. Whether this power can be used for the rule 33(4) period after it has expired is not settled, and it should not be relied upon as a routine remedy.
- Fresh application. Where the notice was properly served and ignored, the practical course is often a fresh application. It carries a new filing date, and any conflicting applications filed in the meantime will have priority.
Where Registry Practice May Be Heading
The current notices serve two purposes: they clear the backlog, and they signal that the one-month period will be enforced. The Registry is likely to automate more of the process, including the issue of reminders, notices and orders.
Because section 132 itself requires notice and an opportunity of hearing, abandonment of an application without any notice at all would be open to challenge. Applicants should not, however, take comfort from that. The time allowed in the notice is set by the Registrar and is already short, and a notice is not a second response period. It is a final opportunity to cure a default that has already occurred. Examination report deadlines should be managed with the same discipline as counter-statement deadlines in oppositions.
What Applicants and Practitioners Should Do Now
- Audit the portfolio. Identify every pending application with an unanswered examination report and file substantive replies now, before a notice arrives. A ten-day window does not fit the ordinary cycle of client consultation, instructions, drafting and filing.
- Treat the one-month period as a hard deadline. Docketing systems should carry internal reminders well before the rule 33(4) deadline, with the same priority as opposition deadlines.
- Keep contact details current. Notices are sent to the address for service and email address on record. An outdated email address is the most common reason a notice goes unseen.
- Use the MIS132 route. Reply to Section 132 notices only through Miscellaneous Reply → Letter related to Notice U/s 132, and preserve the acknowledgement.
- Explain the process at filing. Applicants, particularly small businesses and first-time filers, should be told when they file what an examination report is, that a reply is due within one month, and what follows if it is not filed.
Conclusion
The Registry's Section 132 practice arrived without a policy announcement: reminder emails, then formal notices against applications dormant for months or years, then acceptance where replies were filed, hearings where replies were not accepted, and abandonment where nothing was filed. The leniency that allowed unanswered examination reports to sit in a portfolio is being withdrawn, and the timeline the Rules always prescribed is being enforced.
An unanswered examination report is no longer a low-priority item to be dealt with when convenient. It is a live risk to the application and its filing date. The time to address it is now, not when the next Section 132 notice arrives.