Updating Applicant Details: Name and Address Changes at the DOI

What counts as a record change

Three situations, one procedure. Name changes — a re-registration of the company, a rebrand of the corporate entity, a transliteration cleanup. Address changes — an office move, or a foreign proprietor's correspondence address changing. Corrections — errors in the recorded particulars that do not reflect reality.

What does *not* fit here: ownership changes, which are assignments and travel on the Section 21D route (see our assignment-recordal guide). If the entity on the certificate is no longer the entity that owns the mark, that is an assignment, not a name change.

• Same owner, new name → record change
• Same owner, new address → record change
• Different owner → assignment recordal (Section 21D)

The procedure and the documents

The endorsement application is filed at the Industrial Property Section with evidence of the change — the company registrar's certificate for a corporate name change, official correspondence or citizenship/registration documents for address updates — plus the registration certificate for each affected right and a POA where an agent files.

The fee is NPR 1,000 per trademark (NPR 2,000 for patents, NPR 1,000 for designs — Schedule 3), per mark. The endorsement is complete when the register and, ideally, the certificate reflect the amended particulars — keep the endorsed confirmation with the registration papers.

• Evidence: registrar certificate or official change documents
• Certificate(s) for each affected right; POA if via agent
• Fees: NPR 1,000 per mark (trademark), fixed by Schedule 3

Why stale records are a real liability

The register is the Department's map of who owns what and where they are. Every official action routes through it: renewal notices go to the recorded address — a missed notice at an old office is how marks lapse without anyone deciding anything; oppositions and enforcement require the applicant to be the recorded proprietor; and transactions stall in diligence when the register disagrees with the corporate chart.

None of these failures announces itself. They surface years later, at the worst possible moment — which is why the update is cheapest exactly when the change happens.

• Renewal notices follow the recorded address — stale address, missed notice, lapsed mark
• Standing to oppose or enforce requires matching the recorded proprietor
• Diligence friction: every mismatch is a question in a deal

Housekeeping that prevents the problem

The habit is small: whenever a corporate change lands, list the IP registers it touches and instruct the recordals in the same breath as the company-secretary filings. For portfolios, an annual register audit — register entries vs. current legal names and addresses — catches drift early, and doubles as a check that renewal dates and correspondence addresses are current.

Foreign proprietors: your local agent's mandate is part of the same picture. A new agent without a fresh POA, or a new correspondence address without recordal, produces the same missed-notice risks as a corporate move.