India's First Ever Olfactory Trademark Paving The Way Ahead

Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd.'s rose scented tyres are India's first ever ‘smell mark' of accepted by the Trade Marks Registry in November 2025. With this, the conversation about application and enforcement of non-conventional trademarks opens up. Smell or Olfactory mark is one such unique form of trademarks which is defined by a scent or an odour rather than a logo, phrase, visual or a textual sign. One of the core elements of a smell marks is that this distinctive smell must not be crucial to the product or the brand itself and its functionality. It is a requisite for the smell mark to be represented in a manner that it is described through graphic representation and is also capable of being distinguished from the services and the goods of one brand to another.