# IP Law Q&A Chatbot URL: https://discuvr.org/ip-law-qa-chatbot/ Last updated: 2026-11-07 Ask a question about Indian intellectual property law and get a plain-English answer backed by live web sources you can open and check yourself. Indian intellectual property law is spread across separate acts for trade marks, patents, copyright, designs and geographical indications, plus their rules and a registry practice that is mostly documented in PDFs. This tool answers a question in plain English and lists the web search results it was given, so you can go and check the ones that matter. ## What it does - Covers trademarks, patents, copyright, designs and geographical indications. - With web search on (the default), it searches DuckDuckGo for your question first and gives the model the top five results, so the reply can draw on current material and not only on its training. - Lists the search results it was given, linked, above the answer. - Keeps the thread, so follow-up questions do not need to repeat the context. ## How it works 1. Type your question the way you would ask a person. 2. With web search on, the tool searches DuckDuckGo for your question and passes the titles and snippets of the top five results to the model. You can also attach a PDF, DOCX or TXT file (up to 10 MB, first 50,000 characters read) and ask about it. 3. It answers from those results and its own training, and lists the results above the answer so you can check them. ## What it is good at Orientation questions: which act governs something, what a registry stage is called, how long a term runs, what a filing normally requires, what the difference between two things is. It is fastest when you know roughly what you are looking for but not what it is called. ## What it is not It is not legal advice and it is not your lawyer. It can misread a source, and a source can itself be out of date. Anything with money or a deadline attached should be confirmed against the bare act, the registry, or a practitioner before you act on it. The source links are there precisely so that checking is a click rather than a research task. ## How long each Indian IP right lasts How long a right lasts is a common first question, so here are the base rules, each with the section to check an answer against. Trade mark: registered for 10 years and renewable for further 10-year periods, with no limit on renewals (Trade Marks Act, 1999, section 25). Patent: 20 years from the filing date of the application, or from the international filing date for a PCT application entering India, and it ends early if a renewal fee is not paid (Patents Act, 1970, section 53). Copyright in a published literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work: the author's lifetime plus 60 years, counted from the start of the calendar year after the author's death (Copyright Act, 1957, section 22). Registered design: 10 years from registration, extendable once by 5 years, so 15 years at most (Designs Act, 2000, section 11). Geographical indication: 10 years, renewable for 10 years at a time (Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, section 18). ## Deadlines that run from a registry date Several Indian IP deadlines count from a date the registry or patent office sets, not from the day you hear about it, so ask for the trigger date as well as the period. Trade mark opposition: a notice of opposition on Form TM-O must be filed within four months of the date of the Trade Marks Journal that advertised the application (Trade Marks Act, 1999, section 21(1); Trade Marks Rules, 2017, rule 42). Patent publication: an application is ordinarily published once 18 months have passed from its filing or priority date, whichever is earlier (Patents Act, 1970, section 11A; Patents Rules, 2003, rule 24). Request for examination: a patent application is examined only after a request is filed; for applications filed on or after 15 March 2024 the limit is 31 months from the priority or filing date, whichever is earlier, while older applications keep the 48-month limit (Patents Rules, 2003, rule 24B, as amended in 2024). Post-grant opposition: any person interested can oppose a granted patent until one year after the grant is published (Patents Act, 1970, section 25(2)). ## Questions **Is this legal advice?** No. It is a research aid. It summarises public material and links to it, which is not the same as advice on your situation from someone who is responsible for the outcome. **Does it cover law outside India?** It is tuned for Indian IP law. It will attempt other jurisdictions, but with far less reliability, and you should treat those answers as a starting point for your own reading. **Where do the answers come from?** From Google's Gemini model, given the top five DuckDuckGo results for your question when web search is on. It reads the result titles and snippets, not the full pages, so open the listed sources before you rely on a point. **Do I need an account?** Yes. Asking a question needs a free account, because every answer is a model call. Each IP address can send 40 messages per 10 minutes, and the thread is cleared when you reload the page. **Can it check whether a trade mark is already registered?** No. It has no connection to the Trade Marks Registry and only sees the top five web search results for your question, so a missing result proves nothing. Run the public trade mark search on the IP India website (ipindia.gov.in) before you file or adopt a mark. **What happens if I miss a trade mark renewal date?** A registration runs for 10 years at a time (Trade Marks Act, 1999, section 25(1)), and renewal is filed on Form TM-R up to one year before it expires (Trade Marks Rules, 2017, rule 57(1)). If the date passes, the Registrar must not remove the mark when the renewal fee and a surcharge are paid within six months of expiry (section 25(3), proviso). Once removed for non-payment, it can still be restored and renewed on an application made after those six months and within one year of expiry (section 25(4)). The Act gives no restoration route after that, so a new application is needed. Fees change, so check the current schedule on ipindia.gov.in. **Which trade mark class should I file in?** India classifies goods and services under the Nice Classification: 45 classes, 1 to 34 for goods and 35 to 45 for services (Trade Marks Rules, 2017, rule 20(1)). File in each class that covers what you sell, or genuinely plan to sell, under the mark. Common examples: downloadable software and mobile apps in class 9, software as a service (SaaS) in class 42, clothing in class 25, retail and online store services in class 35, restaurants and cafes in class 43. One application can cover several classes, with the fee charged per class (Trade Marks Act, 1999, section 18(2)). You can ask this tool which classes fit, then check the exact wording of your goods or services against the official Nice Classification list (WIPO, nclpub.wipo.int) before you file. **Do I have to register copyright in India?** No. Copyright in an original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, a film or a sound recording exists without any registration (Copyright Act, 1957, section 13). Registration with the Copyright Office is optional: section 45 says an author or owner may apply, not must. What it gives you is evidence: an entry in the Register of Copyrights is prima facie proof of the particulars recorded in it (section 48), which helps in a dispute or an urgent injunction application, but it can be rebutted. Applications are filed online at copyright.gov.in. Either way, keep dated drafts, source files and contracts, since they also prove who created the work and who owns it. --- Part of Discuvr (https://discuvr.org/): Discuvr is a collection of free, focused tools for day-to-day professional work - office and data utilities, legal and compliance helpers, privacy and security checks, and developer formatters. Every tool has its own page, and most can also be called from ChatGPT or Claude over MCP.