In the year 1940, under British India, the Trade Marks Act, 1940 was enacted by Government which later on was repealed by Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958.

On, 15.09.2003, Government of India in order to meet with the International Obligations repealed the earlier Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, of 1958 and notified Trade Marks Act, 1999 into effect under which for the first time in the history of Indian Trade Marks System, classification of services from Classes 35 upto 42 were brought into force for the protection of service marks for service providers.

In addition the duration of a registration which was 7 years from the date of registration or from the date of last renewal used to remain in the earlier Act was enhanced and now under the new Act of 1999, a mark remains valid upto next 10 years from the date of registration or last renewal.

The provision for filing of applications as multi-class application was also incorporated which was not available for the applicants in the earlier Act.

Another measure was taken by the Government of India while repealing the earlier Act was that it included well known Trade Marks in the new Act which helped the foreign applicants to take benefit of Paris Convention Treaty.

Presently, India follows classification of goods and services from Classes 1 to 45 and also recognizes Vienna Classification of Goods and Services.