Drafting Credit: Sidratul Muntaha, Research Associate
Image credits: via Freepik
Just think of walking down a road, noticing a tyre shop, and immediately being able to identify a tyre brand, not by name or logo, but by scent. That imagination just became reality, as India registers its first scent trademark.
This is a historic step in the trademark regime of India, as for the first time, a scent similar to that of a rose, which is used on tyres, was approved under Class 12 after an application was submitted in March 2023 by Sumitomo Rubber Industries (Application No. 5860303) and was further published in TM Journal No. 2236.1 However, it is important to note that this milestone is not yet conclusive, and the mark attracted four oppositions within the statutory four-month window under Section 21 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999. The first opposition (No. 1417263) was filed on January 24, 2026 followed by three more filed in late March 2026.2
Sumitomo filed its counterstatement to the first opposition on March 25, 2026, asserting 30 years of acquired distinctiveness since 1994 and citing 26 internationally registered smell marks across Australia, Costa Rica, the EU, UK, and USA.3 The final registration of the scent mark is therefore subject to the outcome of these opposition proceedings, and its status as a fully registered trademark remains pending.
Under the Trade Marks Act of 1999 of India, as defined under Section 2(1)(zb), a trademark must be capable of being represented graphically and be distinctive of the goods or services, and this has been a major problem for scent trademarks all over the world, as smells don’t really have a natural visual equivalent.4 If the mark survives the opposition proceedings, it could extend the scope of trademarks in India and open new possibilities for sensory brand development.
Globally, scent trademarks are not common because of the difficulties involved in capturing the scent accurately for registration. For instance, the UK registered a rose scent for tires in 1996 and importantly, it was the same scent mark by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which had earlier been successful in getting a similar scent trademark in the UK prior to its application in India, demonstrating its long-standing distinctiveness.5 Similarly, in non-conventional scent trademarks, Australia has registered the scent of eucalyptus on golf tees.6
These examples demonstrate that some countries allow smells as trademarks, but the criteria for acceptance are quite divergent. Many jurisdictions, including in the EU before reform, rejected scent marks because they could not be represented graphically in a manner that was clear, precise, objective, and durable, as established in the Sieckmann v. Deutsches Patent und Markenamt decision, which made scent marks particularly difficult to register in Europe.7
In this manner, this initiative by India aligns with the progressive approaches to the management of trademarks around the world. The decision, therefore, has the potential to extend the scope of trademarks in India and create new possibilities for creative brand development with the potential to engage consumers on more senses than sight and sound. Nonetheless, this possibility is one that should be thoughtfully considered. Even though the legal option is now available, the actual implementation of scent trademarks and showing consumer identification with the scent and its source may be an evidentiary problem.
- Unnat P Pandit, India’s first smell mark: Sumitomo rose-scented tires, WIPO Magazine (13 Feb, 2026) https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/indias-first-smell-mark-sumitomo-rose-scented-tires-89623. ↩︎
- IP India Trade Mark Registry,, available at https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx (last visited 28 March, 2025, 14:11 IST). ↩︎
- Id. ↩︎
- Trade Marks Act, 1999, § 2, cl. 1 (zb), No. 47, Acts of Parliament, 1999 (India) ↩︎
- Harsh Gour, Decoding India’s first accepted Smell Trademark: ‘Rose-Fragranced Tyres’, The Leaflet (27 Nov, 2025, 5:45 PM) https://theleaflet.in/digital-rights/law-and-technology/decoding-indias-first-accepted-smell-trademark-rose-fragranced-tyres. ↩︎
- Akshi Seem, Branding by Scent – Landmark Registration of India’s First Smell Mark, Maheshwari & Co. (28 Nov, 2025) https://www.maheshwariandco.com/blog/india-smell-trademark-first-scent-mark-filed/. ↩︎
- Ralf Sieckmann v Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt, Case C-273/00 [2002] ECR I-11737. ↩︎
