Your masthead is your credibility. A fake-news site wearing it can spend that credibility faster than a decade of reporting built it.
A news brand is a promise about accuracy. Readers share a story because the masthead on it — The Wire, ThePrint, Scroll, or yours — vouches for the reporting. That promise is exactly what impersonators steal: clone sites with a lookalike masthead publishing fabricated stories, YouTube channels running your name over someone else's videos, and "syndication partners" who keep republishing under your banner long after any arrangement ended. Every one of these spends your credibility, and corrections never travel as far as the fake.
The filing frame: Class 41 covers news reporting, online publication and entertainment services — the editorial core. Class 38 covers broadcasting, streaming and transmission — your video, podcast and OTT distribution. Class 9 covers the downloadable app and digital content files. Government fees are ₹4,500 per class per TM-A for startups, MSMEs and individuals — ₹9,000 otherwise. India is first-to-file: a decade-old masthead without a registration can lose a naming fight to a two-month-old certificate.
Three filings cover most of the IP risk on day one. Each is a standalone service and each links to a deeper walkthrough.
Three patterns account for most of the brand damage newsrooms face.
Register the masthead before the next viral cycle. Corrections are slow; certificates are fast.
Class 41 is the editorial heart: news reporters services, publication of online electronic texts, production of programmes, and entertainment services. Your masthead's primary registration belongs here.
Class 38 covers transmission — broadcasting, streaming of audio-visual content, podcast transmission and news-agency wire services. If you run video, audio or an OTT presence, Class 38 closes the gap a Class 41-only filing leaves open.
Class 9 covers the downloadable app, podcast files and other downloadable digital content. App-store takedowns against clone apps lean on this class.
Legacy print editions add Class 16; branded events and awards stay in Class 41. Note that newspaper and periodical titles also involve separate title-registration formalities under press-registration law — a masthead trademark and title registration are complementary, not substitutes. Verify each revenue line against the trademark class finder before filing.
Every article, photograph, video and podcast episode your newsroom produces is protected by copyright automatically from creation — no registration required. That copyright is what you license when you syndicate, and what you enforce when an aggregator lifts your reporting wholesale. Registering copyright in key works and archives is optional but makes ownership disputes and platform takedowns far quicker to win.
The masthead is different. Copyright does not protect names or titles — only trademark law does. So the brand readers actually trust, the thing the fake-news site copies, is protected by the TM-A filing and nothing else. File the word mark for the masthead, then the logo as a device mark.
Syndication ties the two together. A proper syndication agreement licenses copyright in the content and, separately and narrowly, use of the masthead — with term, territory and termination spelled out. Our contracts team drafts these so that when a partner goes rogue, the exit clause and the registered mark do the enforcement work together.
Government fees: ₹4,500 per class for startups, MSMEs and individuals; ₹9,000 otherwise. A three-class masthead filing (41 + 38 + 9) as a recognised startup costs ₹13,500 in government fees. IPForte files within 48 hours — the ™ can sit beside the masthead the same week.
Examination lands in 2–6 months with a 30-day objection-reply deadline. Journal publication opens the 4-month opposition window; clean applications register in roughly 8–18 months and renew every 10 years. If your content travels internationally, a Madrid Protocol filing extends the masthead's protection abroad from the same Indian base application.
₹13,500 for the masthead. One fabricated story under your name costs more in reader trust than every filing on this page.
Found a clone site or fake channel wearing your masthead? Send us the link — we'll map the takedown route in one call.
WhatsApp our team →Class 41 covers news reporting and online publication — the core class for a masthead. Add Class 38 for broadcasting, streaming and podcast transmission, and Class 9 for the downloadable app and digital content files.
No. Copyright protects the articles, photos and videos you publish — automatically, from creation. Names and titles are outside copyright; the masthead is protected only by trademark registration. You need both working together: copyright for the content, trademark for the name.
Three parallel tracks: an INDRP/UDRP domain complaint to seize the lookalike domain, infringement notices to the host and platforms citing your trademark registration, and platform impersonation reports for associated social handles. All three move faster with a registration certificate attached — file the masthead's TM-A before you need it.
Yes — and it should always be written. A syndication agreement licenses copyright in the content and, separately, limited use of the masthead, with a clear term, territory, attribution rules and termination clause. A registered trademark makes the masthead licence enforceable; without registration, policing a rogue partner is much harder.
₹4,500 per class in government fees for startups, MSMEs and individuals; ₹9,000 otherwise. A three-class filing across Classes 41, 38 and 9 costs ₹13,500 in government fees for a startup, plus professional fees. Registration takes roughly 8–18 months and renews every 10 years.