Trademark registration in Pakistan: IPO fees, steps, timeline

What you pay IPO, form by form

To register a trademark in Pakistan, you file Form TM-1 with the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan (IPO) for one mark in one class. It costs Rs 3,000. When IPO accepts the mark and sends a demand notice, you pay Rs 9,000 on Form TM-11 and get the certificate. That is Rs 12,000 per mark per class, or Rs 13,000 with the optional Rs 1,000 search on Form TM-55. These are the figures on IPO’s fee and forms page as of October 2026, from a Commerce Division notification in force since March 9, 2019. We found no newer one.

A person who opposes your mark pays IPO Rs 9,000 on Form TM-5. Every fee is per mark and per class. A lawn brand that sells stitched suits (class 25) and unstitched fabric (class 24) files twice: 2 × Rs 12,000 = Rs 24,000, or 2 × Rs 13,000 = Rs 26,000 with a search for each. Each extra class is another TM-1 and TM-11.

Your total for one mark in one class

Over the ten-year term, Rs 13,000 is Rs 1,300 a year, or about Rs 108 a month. The agent route is a floor: Rs 14,000 comes before the agent charges anything.

How to search the IPO register

IPO has no instant online trademark search. The E-Search link on its home page is still marked coming soon, so as of October 2026 you have three routes.

The in-person rule is in IPO’s filing guidelines, and the Journals are on IPO’s e-Journal page. Start with the Journal. No. 907, dated August 1, 2026, advertises 5,806 marks, so search the PDF for your word and its spellings, Roman Urdu included: Noor, Nur and Noorr are one name to a buyer. A hit is a reason to stop. No hit is not clearance, because marks filed in recent months have not been published yet. The Rs 1,000 search covers that gap.

Look for the same word, or one that sounds or looks like it, on the same kind of goods. Section 17 of the Trade Marks Ordinance, 2001 bars a mark identical or similar to an earlier one where the public is likely to be confused.

Pick your class: clothing, perfume, jewellery, food

Each application covers one class of the Nice classification. A clothing brand files in class 25. Perfume and cosmetics are class 3, jewellery is class 14, and food is class 29 or 30. The table is from IPO’s classification summary and the 12th edition Nice list.

Do you also need class 35?

Only if you resell other makers’ goods. The Nice note to class 35 says the sale of goods is not a service. What the class lists is “the bringing together, for the benefit of others, of a variety of goods” so that customers can view and buy them, including through websites. A brand selling its own suits is selling its own goods, so class 25 is its class. A multi-brand shop is the class 35 case. Several guides tell every online seller to file 25 and 35 together, while Tramatm’s answer says class 25 alone is enough for own-brand clothing. We follow the Nice text. Each extra class costs another Rs 12,000, so add one only for goods you make or plan to sell soon.

Filing online, step by step

IPO and PITB launched the online filing system on June 14, 2023, and PITB says it has an online payment facility. Have these ready before you open the portal.

• Your CNIC, and a mobile number and email address that are yours.
• The mark as an image: the name in the lettering you want, or the logo.
• The class, a plain list of the goods the mark will cover, and your full business address.
• A statement that you already use the mark or intend to. Section 22(3) of the Ordinance requires one or the other.
• A translation and transliteration affidavit, only if the mark is in a language other than English or Urdu.

1. Open apply.ipo.gov.pk and choose New Registration. Enter your CNIC, your own mobile number and your own email. IPO locks both after verification, so do not use a friend’s or a printer’s.
2. Enter the SMS and email codes, pick SELF, and add your name and correspondence address. IPO emails a username (your CNIC), a default password and a four-digit PIN, which you need to submit an application. The steps are in IPO’s SELF registration guide.
3. Log in and fill Form TM-1 from your checklist, and say whether the mark is in use or proposed to be used. Upload a clear image of the mark. If you claim colours, you may use only those colours. If you claim none, the mark covers any colour.
4. Pay the Rs 3,000 and submit with your PIN. Keep the acknowledgement receipt and application number, which IPO says it issues within about fifteen days.

Word, logo or both

Decide before step 3. Section 37 says a registered mark “shall not be altered in the Register, during the period of registration or on renewal”, and the Registrar may allow only a change to a name or address inside the mark. So the picture you file is the one you hold for ten years. A redrawn logo is a new Form TM-1 (Rs 3,000) and, on acceptance, a new Form TM-11 (Rs 9,000). IPO’s pages do not say whether it takes a name in plain lettering as a word mark, so ask [email protected] before you upload one.

A SELF account files only your own applications. If the brand belongs to a company or a partnership firm, write to [email protected] before you start, and ask the same address which cards or banks the portal takes. On paper, IPO asks for Form TM-1 in duplicate plus six more representations of the mark on durable paper of 13 by 8 inches, with the fee as a pay order or bank draft to the Director General, IPO-Pakistan, because the registry does not accept cash. If your bank asks for IPO’s FTN, it is 9010120-7, per the trademark FAQ.

After you file: the timeline

Trademark registration in Pakistan takes about 13–14 months when nobody objects or opposes, going by IPO’s own averages, and longer when someone does.

Under section 23, the day you give IPO the particulars is your filing date, and it decides who is earlier if a similar mark is filed after yours. IPO’s average-time table gives these stages.

The clean-case rows add up to about 13–14 months. That is our sum of IPO’s averages, not a promise, and Kickstart puts the real average at about two years. IPO’s FAQ says the first report comes after three months, while the table says four, so plan on four.

How long marks wait to be advertised

IPO’s table gives averages, not the spread, so we took Journal No. 907, dated August 1, 2026, which advertises 5,806 marks under section 28(1), and counted the months from each mark’s printed filing date to the Journal date. The median is 5.9 months. Half the marks had been filed within 6 months, 71% within 12 months, and 29% had waited over a year.

Read this as a floor. Applications still waiting for an examination report, or refused, are not in the Journal. It is also one issue, and IPO’s listing page shows 25 Sep 2026 against it, so if the issue went out late, add about two months to every figure. Add the two-month opposition window, the demand notice and the certificate, and a median mark that nobody opposes reaches its certificate in close to a year, a little under IPO’s 13–14 months. The slow tail is nearer the two years Kickstart quotes.

Objections, opposition and the ten-year term

If IPO objects, you have two months to reply. Section 14 lets it refuse a mark with no distinctive character, or one made only of words describing the goods, such as “Pure Honey” for honey, and section 17 a mark too close to an earlier one. A coined name passes more easily than a descriptive one.

Once the mark is published, anyone can oppose it within two months. You then have one month, extendable to two, to send a counter-statement on Form TM-6, or section 28 treats the application as abandoned.

The ten-year term starts on your filing date, not on the day the certificate arrives. Section 33(3) deems the filing date to be the date of registration, and IPO’s FAQ says the same. Say you file on March 1, 2027 and the certificate arrives in 2028. The term still runs to March 2037, and renewal on Form TM-12 is due before then.

Under section 33(5), if registration is not completed within twelve months of your application because of something you failed to do, the Registrar can treat it as abandoned. Restoring it on Form TM-57 costs Rs 1,500, so answer every notice and pay the demand notice on time. Section 73 allows revocation if the mark is not put to genuine use in Pakistan within five years of completing registration.

Agent or yourself

An agent costs the IPO fees plus their own. Per IPO’s online filing page, only an advocate with a Bar Council license or a Registered Trademark Agent can file for you, with Form TM-48 (the power of attorney) on stamp paper, which Kickstart puts at Rs 1,000. The table shows what four agents advertised on their own sites in October 2026. They are not quotes for your mark.

Scounts lists renewal at Rs 3,000 and the filing fee as “around” Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000, against IPO’s Rs 15,000 and Rs 3,000, so check what its price covers. With a spread from Rs 10,000 to Rs 80,000 for the same forms, you cannot compare headline totals. Ask each agent, in writing, which of these their price covers.

• The search (Form TM-55, Rs 1,000), and whether they advise on the result.
• Filing Form TM-1 (Rs 3,000 to IPO) and the Rs 1,000 stamp paper for Form TM-48.
• Replying to the examination report if IPO objects.
• Watching publication in the Trade Marks Journal and answering an opposition, with the price of each.
• The demand notice, the Rs 9,000 on Form TM-11, and delivery of the certificate.
• Whether the IPO fees are inside the price or billed on top.

What a small brand does first, and ™ or ®

1. Choose a name that is not a plain description of what you sell. Our store name ideas guide helps.
2. Check Google, Instagram, Daraz and a .pk domain for the name. If a shop in your line already trades under it, a search will not fix that. Then search the latest Trade Marks Journal PDF.
3. Pick the one class you care about most: 25 for clothing, 3 for perfume, 14 for jewellery, 30 for food. File Form TM-55 for it (Rs 1,000).
4. If you will file a logo, finish it first, because section 37 makes a later redraw a new application. Our free logo maker makes a first version.
5. Register as SELF and file Form TM-1 in your own name (Rs 3,000). File before you spend on a logo print run or ads.
6. Write ™, not ®, and start a folder of dated proof of use.
7. Watch for the show-cause notice at about four months and answer within two months. If the brand later becomes a company, moving the mark to it costs Rs 6,000 on Form TM-23 within six months of the change and Rs 7,500 after that.
8. When the demand notice arrives, pay the Rs 9,000 on Form TM-11. Then switch to ®.

™ or ®, and proof of use

The Ordinance does not mention the ™ sign, so using it to say “this is my mark” breaks no rule. The ® sign is different: section 102 bars you from saying a mark is registered when it is not. The penalty is one to six months in prison, a fine of at least Rs 20,000, or both. The section treats the word “registered” and any wording that implies registration the same way, so keep both out of your bio and off packaging until the certificate arrives.

Rights in Pakistan can come from use as well as registration, and IPO’s guidelines say registration is prima facie evidence in your favour. So keep dated proof from day one: first invoices, courier receipts, dated posts and screenshots of the store with the name on it. Once the mark is registered, section 40 also makes it an infringement for someone to use it as a trade name or a domain name.

For registering a firm, getting an NTN and opening a bank account, see our guide to registering an online business.

Where your store fits

Your brand name will sit in your store address. Storelala stores live at yourbrand.storelala.com. You can buy a .com right in Storelala on any plan; Core and Grow can also connect a .pk or .com you already own. A .pk comes from PKNIC, so Storelala can’t sell one.

Lite is free forever with cash on delivery, so you can start selling while the application runs. See pricing for the plans.

Questions sellers ask

How much does trademark registration cost in Pakistan?

IPO Pakistan charges Rs 3,000 to file Form TM-1 and Rs 9,000 for the registration on Form TM-11, per mark and per class, which is Rs 12,000 in all. The optional search on Form TM-55 adds Rs 1,000. An agent adds Rs 1,000 for stamp paper and their own fee, so ask for a written quote. Four agents advertised prices from Rs 10,000 to Rs 80,000 in October 2026, covering different things.

How long does trademark registration take in Pakistan?

IPO’s average-time table adds up to about 13–14 months from filing to certificate when nobody objects or opposes. In IPO’s August 2026 Trade Marks Journal, half the advertised marks had been filed within 6 months, but 29% had waited over a year. An objection adds roughly three months, and an opposition takes as long as it takes.

How do I register a trademark in Pakistan online, and do I need a lawyer?

Register as a SELF user at apply.ipo.gov.pk with your CNIC, your own mobile number and your own email, then file Form TM-1 and pay Rs 3,000. IPO and PITB launched online filing on June 14, 2023. You do not need a lawyer to file in your own name. Only an advocate or a Registered Trademark Agent can file for you, with a power of attorney on Form TM-48 on stamp paper.

How do I search for a trademark in Pakistan?

IPO’s online E-Search is still marked coming soon, so there is no free instant search. You can file Form TM-55 for Rs 1,000, search in person at the Karachi, Islamabad or Lahore office for a Rs 300 bank draft per 15 minutes, or open IPO’s free monthly Trade Marks Journal and search the PDF. The Journal only lists marks that have reached publication, so it will not show a recent filing.

Which trademark class does a clothing brand need?

Class 25 covers clothing, footwear and headwear in the Nice classification, so a brand selling its own stitched clothes files there. Unstitched fabric is class 24, bags are class 18 and jewellery is class 14. Class 35 covers retail services for the benefit of others, so add it only if you resell other makers’ goods. Each class is a separate application at Rs 12,000.

Can I write ™ or ® next to my brand name in Pakistan?

You can use ™ while you are only claiming the name, because the Trade Marks Ordinance does not mention it. Do not use ® or the word registered until you hold the certificate. Section 102 makes it an offence, punishable by one to six months in prison or a fine of at least Rs 20,000, or both.