Prolonged hearing delays in trademark opposition and objection cases have prompted a growing call for decentralized trademark registries across India. As the number of trademark applications continues to rise, businesses, legal professionals, and entrepreneurs are increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of hearings at the central Trademark Registry in Delhi. These delays not only create uncertainty for businesses seeking brand protection but also hinder the overall efficiency of the trademark registration process. To address these challenges, experts are advocating for the establishment of regional trademark offices in various parts of the country, enabling quicker hearings and faster resolution of disputes.

The push for decentralization is driven by the need to distribute the workload more evenly across multiple offices, which would help reduce backlogs and improve the speed of decision-making. By creating more local registries, the government could bring trademark registration and hearing procedures closer to businesses, especially startups and SMEs in remote or rural areas. This move is expected to make the process more accessible, reducing the dependency on a central location and alleviating the pressure on a single office.

Advocates for decentralized trademark registries believe that this approach would not only expedite hearings but also improve the overall efficiency of the trademark system in India. With a more localized and distributed system, businesses would benefit from quicker resolutions, which could help them better manage their brand identities and ensure the legal protection of their intellectual property. The decentralization of trademark registries could therefore play a critical role in the modernization of India’s intellectual property system, supporting both innovation and business growth across the country.