Protect your brand and IP
Trademark your name, fight counterfeits, and handle customer data right.
3 steps to get you moving, each with a resource worth your time and more waiting underneath
Think of this as a friendly starting line, not the last word. Each step gives you the gist, then a resource worth your time from founders who've been there. There's always more underneath, more questions and more resources, whenever you feel like digging in.
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1
Trademark & brand IP
Own your name before someone else does.
Should I trademark my brand name before I even launch, or can it wait till I have traction?The gist File before your website goes live or your first Instagram ad runs, India runs on 'first to file,' not 'first to use,' so waiting for traction just gives a squatter or a competitor a window to file your name first. Filing itself (getting the application number and being able to use the ™ symbol) is fast and cheap relative to what it costs to rebrand six months in after you've built recognition around a name someone else legally owns. Registration confirmation (the ® symbol) takes much longer, treat 'filed' as the milestone that matters at launch, not 'registered'.
Trademark Registration for Startups in India: 2026 Guide Intepat Written specifically for startups rather than general businesses, so it leads with the 'first to file' urgency and DPIIT fee discount instead of burying them in procedural detail. -
2
Counterfeits & IP enforcement
Stop fakes and hijackers on marketplaces and your store.
How do I get my brand onto Amazon Brand Registry and Project Zero to fight counterfeits?The gist Amazon Brand Registry is your entry ticket, you need a registered (or at least pending) trademark to enroll, after which Project Zero gives you a self-service tool to search for and instantly remove counterfeit listings using your brand, plus automated scanning running in the background even when you're not looking. It's free once you're enrolled, and in India specifically Amazon has been ramping up its own investigative and enforcement capacity, so filing your trademark application early (a 'pending' status often qualifies you to start) is the actual bottleneck, not the Brand Registry application itself.
Project Zero | Sell on Amazon Amazon The official self-service counterfeit-removal tool, free once you're Brand Registry-enrolled, this is the primary weapon against fakes on Amazon, straight from the source. -
3
Data privacy & the DPDP Act
Handle customer data legally under India's DPDP Act.
Do I actually need to worry about DPDP as a small D2C brand, or is this a big-company problem?The gist DPDP has no small-business carve-out, the moment you collect a customer's name, phone number, address, or payment detail to fulfil an order, you're a 'Data Fiduciary' under the Act, whether you're a two-person WooCommerce store or a large marketplace. The good news is the compliance bar scales with size: most D2C brands aren't 'Significant Data Fiduciaries' (the tier needing an India-based DPO and formal audits), so your real to-do list is a clean consent flow, a proper privacy notice, and a documented way to handle a customer's 'delete my data' request. Full enforcement lands by May 2027, but treat the gap-assessment and policy rewrite as a 2026 project, not a 2027 scramble.
DPDP Compliance for E-Commerce: Complete Guide for Online Sellers ComplyZero Written specifically for online sellers rather than enterprises, it maps DPDP obligations onto the actual data an ecommerce checkout collects, which is the version of this law that matters to a D2C founder.
