Class 43 covers services for providing food and drink for consumption, and services for providing temporary accommodation — restaurants, cafés, catering, hotels, and similar venues. It does not cover the packaged food products a restaurant might separately sell (that's Class 29 or 30), and it does not cover venues where entertainment is the primary purpose, such as nightclubs, even if they serve drinks.
In This Article
Class 43 sounds simple on the surface — food, drink, a place to stay — but the boundary it draws is about the service of feeding or housing someone, not the products involved or the venue's atmosphere. That distinction is exactly where restaurant and hospitality brands most often misfile.
What Class 43 Actually Covers
The official heading is simply "Services for providing food and drink; temporary accommodation." The explanatory note clarifies this covers services related to preparing food and drink for consumption, and services for providing temporary lodging. In practice, that includes:
- Restaurant, café, cafeteria, and self-service restaurant services
- Catering, canteen, and bar services
- Snack-bar services and food sculpting/decorating services
- Hotel, motel, boarding house, and tourist home accommodation
- Campground facilities and holiday camp lodging
- Rental of chairs, tables, tents, and cooking apparatus for events
- Accommodation reservation services, including through travel agents or brokers
What's Commonly Mistaken for Class 43
| Often Assumed to Be Class 43 | Actual Class |
|---|---|
| Packaged food products sold separately (sauces, spice mixes, ready meals) | Class 29 or 30, depending on the product |
| Beverages sold as retail products, not served in-venue | Class 32 or 33 |
| Discotheques and nightclubs (entertainment-first venues) | Class 41 |
| Boarding schools and nursery schools (education-first, with ancillary lodging) | Class 41 |
| Rental of drinking water dispensers used industrially, not for guests | Depends on context — check the specific use |
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Why a Nightclub Isn't Class 43
This is a useful example of a broader classification principle: a business is sorted by what it fundamentally does, not by every incidental service it happens to bundle in. A restaurant's core offering is food service, so it's Class 43. A nightclub's core offering is entertainment, so it's Class 41, even though both might have a bar.
Who Typically Files in Class 43
Restaurants, cafés, catering businesses, hotels, resorts, and event-space rental services all typically file here. This is one of the more straightforward classes in terms of who needs it, since the class heading maps closely to how these businesses actually describe themselves. Before settling on a name, a free trademark search can confirm it's genuinely available in Class 43 and any other class your business needs.
Classes Often Filed Alongside Class 43
- Class 29 or 30 — if the restaurant also manufactures and sells packaged food products under the same brand, separate from what's served on-site
- Class 32 or 33 — if the business also bottles and sells its own beverages as retail products
- Class 35 — if the business also operates retail sales of food-related merchandise or runs a broader marketplace
Our full cost breakdown post covers this same multi-class logic using a food-and-beverage example.
Cost for Class 43
The government fee is the same as for any other class: ₹4,500 per class for individuals, sole proprietors, DPIIT-recognised startups, and MSMEs filing online, or ₹9,000 per class for companies and other entities. If your restaurant also sells packaged products, that's a separate class and a separate fee. Our cost calculator can total this up for your specific combination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not Sure If Your Business Needs Class 43, 29/30, or Both?
Use the free class finder to check, or ask a specific question about your restaurant or hospitality business.