Every Friday Until December: The Trade Marks Registry’s Special Disposal Drive, and What It Means for Your Opposition Files

By Lucy Rana and Ananyaa Banerjee

The Trade Marks Registry has set aside every working Friday between now and the end of the year for a single purpose: clearing the opposition matters that have sat on its files for too long. Its Public Notice of August 31, 2026 (Ref. TMR/Public Notice/2026/4546) announces a Special Disposal Drive aimed squarely at cases the parties themselves no longer wish to contest  those they have agreed to settle, or where the application or the opposition is to be withdrawn.

For anyone holding, or defending, a stalled opposition, below is what the drive does, who it affects in which month, and what a rights holder should do before its Friday comes around.

A drive built around settlement, not a fresh contest

The notice is careful about its scope. This is not a wholesale re-listing of every pending opposition for a fresh fight on the merits. It targets long-pending proceedings where the parties desire to withdraw the application or opposition, or have reached an amicable settlement. The Registry’s stated aims are familiar to anyone who has watched the backlog build reduce pendency, streamline procedure, improve transparency and the ease of doing business but the mechanism here is co-operative. The drive rewards parties who have already made peace, or are ready to, by giving them a fixed and near-term date to have the matter formally closed.

That framing has a lineage. In August 2022 the CGPDTM issued a public notice launching a special drive for disposal of IP disputes, encouraging parties to settle and to file the supporting papers so the Registry could pass orders; two further notices followed in February 2023 addressing uncontested and unanswered matters. The 2026 drive is the most structured version of that idea to date a standing weekly slot, running for four months, with a clear rule for who is heard when.

How the calendar works

The listing is by the filing year of the underlying trade mark application, in ten-year blocks. The oldest matters go first:

Every date is hybrid, so parties may appear in person at the Registry or virtually through the link published on the IP India portal. The practical consequence of the sequencing is easy to miss: if your opposition rests on an application filed in the 1990s, your window opens in September and does not come round again. The commencement date is the first Friday of September, 04/09/2026.

The three-day rule that decides everything

The single most important line in the notice is the documentation deadline. Evidence of settlement  a settlement deed or a withdrawal request must be uploaded or submitted at least three days before the relevant Friday, through the online portal or by email. A matter is only ready to be disposed of on the day if the paperwork is already on the Registry’s record.

This is where preparation matters. A settlement that exists in principle but not on paper co-existence terms still being negotiated, a deed unsigned, an assignment or an amendment to the specification not yet drafted will not convert into a disposal order simply because a hearing date exists. The lead time is short, and the drafting that supports a clean withdrawal or settlement is best done now, not in the days before the listing.

The cost of not showing up

The notice is equally clear about the downside. Parties and their legal representatives are to check status of their respective opposition matters and appear virtually before the Hearing Officer via the link published on the website or physically. If a party neither appears nor complies on the scheduled date, the matter may be decided ex parte, or dealt with on merits under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Trade Marks Rules, 2017, on the records available to the office. For an applicant who has let an opposed application drift in importance, that can mean the application falling away. For an opponent who ignores the date, it can mean the opposition being dismissed and the mark it was blocking proceeding to registration. Neither is an outcome to reach by inattention.

What rights holders should do now

1. Audit your opposition portfolio against the calendar. Identify every matter whether you are the applicant or the opponent and sort it by the filing year of the underlying application, so you know which month, and which Friday, each belongs to.
2. Separate the live fights from the dead ones. The drive is a chance to close matters you no longer wish to pursue and to formalise settlements already reached in substance.
3. Get the paperwork settlement-ready. Where a matter is to be withdrawn or settled, have the deed, the withdrawal request and any consequential filings (amendment of goods, assignment, co-existence terms) drafted and executed in time to file 3 days before the date.
4. Confirm the listing and the mode. Check the status of each matter on the IP India portal and decide, per matter, whether to appear physically or virtually.
5. Diarise the non-appearance risk. For any matter you do not intend to actively close, understand what an ex-parte or on-merits decision would mean, and decide deliberately whether to attend.

A closing note

Backlog-clearing drives of this kind come and go, and their value depends almost entirely on whether parties are ready to use them. The Registry has done its part by fixing the dates and the rules. For the parties, the drive offers something rare in trade mark practice a scheduled, predictable, near-term chance to close a file cleanly, on their own terms. The work that makes that possible is done in the three weeks before the Friday, not on the Friday itself.

How we can help. S.S. Rana & Co. regularly advises applicants and opponents on trade mark opposition strategy, settlement and co-existence agreements, withdrawals and consequential filings before the Trade Marks Registry. If you would like us to review your opposition portfolio against the drive calendar and prepare the necessary documentation in time, please write info@ssrana.cominfo@ssrana.com