PROCEDURE FOR REGISTRATION OF TRADEMARK IN INDIA TRADEMARK REGISTRATION

Trademarks are special unique signs, words or, labels or, designs, and so on, which have been used to identify goods and services from a certain company or an individual. Trademark provides protection to the company or an individual and their goods and services which they created so that none of the company or an individual can steal or copying their goods and services and use it from them. To protect the rights of an individual or a company trademark act was formed in 1999, which is called the Trademark Act, 1999. To get the protection of trademark rights one has to register with the trademark registration office. It is important to register their trademark with the trademark registration office so that no one can copy or steal your mark. Trademarks help the customers to recognize the brand and the brand value such as the logo of PUMA a jumping wildcat and so on. A trademark becomes an untouchable asset once it gets registered. The trademark doesn’t have any definite limitation period, a trademark registration expires after 10 years of its registration and can be renewed again for another 10 years. It means it will not expire as long as you keep renewing it.

Know more about Trademarks and their benefits, see the video below -

PROCESS OF REGISTRATION OF TRADEMARK

The process of registration of trademark includes filing of the trademark registration application thereafter examination of the trademark thereafter publication or advertisement of trademark then if the objection is raised find out new trademark and once the trademark gets registered with the trademark registry renewal of the trademark after every 10 years. A few steps for the registration of the trademark includes:-

• CHOOSING A TRADEMARK- We need to choose the trademark which is not previously registered with the trademark registry, which is unique and distinctive, which will represent the company. The other important thing which we have to keep in mind is in which class the company fall to. There are 45 classes in trademark out of which 1 to 34 categories of classes are for goods and 35 to 45 classes are for services.

• TRADEMARK SEARCH- The applicant must be very careful while choosing their TM, since there are already tons of mark which are registered with the trademark registry, so while choosing the trademark we need to make a public search on the trademark database which is available at trademark registry to make sure that the mark which we have chosen is unique and distinctive from other registered TM. The TM search discloses all the types of TM that are available in the market, either registered or unregistered when we will do a public search, the trademark registry further tells us that the applied trademark has a competition for the same trademark.

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• FILING APPLICATION- After public search and assurance that your brand name and logo is not listed in the trademark registry, you can look forward to registering the same. To register your trademark you need to 1^st file an application at the Trademark Registry it can be done either online or offline. Also, we need to keep in mind the goods and services here are classified into 45 categories out of which 34 classes comprise product classes and the remaining 11 comprise services. So we need to keep in mind under which class our brand fall. The registration application is FORM TM-A this is the form for multiple classes or series trademark or collective trademark. This form allows you to register the trademark beyond one class. The other option to file an application is to file under “one” class, in this, you can file a trademark application only for specific classes the form is TM-1 to file in this class.

• EXAMINATION- After the filing of the application, it is examined by the examiner for any discrepancies. It takes around 12 to 18 months to examine the same, once the examination has been done, the examiner either accept the same or reject it the examiner might accept the same absolutely or conditionally or object. If it is accepted unconditionally then it will be published in the Trademark Journal. If not, the applicant must have to fulfill all the conditions or the objections which are mentioned in the examination report. There is also a limitation of time which is 1 month the applicant must have to fulfill all those conditions within 1 month. Once such conditions are fulfilled the trademark is published in Trademark Journal.

• PUBLICATION OF TRADEMARK- Once the examination is done, the said mark is going to publish in the newspapers or in advertisements so that if anyone wants to object to the registering of trademark he has the opportunity to oppose the same. Once the publication is done and no opposition is bringing within 3 to 4 months, the said mark proceeds for registration. And in case, if there is an opposition then a fair fare hearing and decision are given by the Registrar.

• REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE- Once the publication is done, the examiner issued a certificate of registration of a trademark under seal within one week. This will officially confirm that your trademark has been registered and is now protected. Once you have received the registration certificate, you can use the registered trademark symbol beside your brand name. Once the registration complete, it is valid for 10 years, after 10 years it would require to be renewed. Also, the said trademark is only protected and valid in India and does not warrant any international status.

To know more about, Procedure of Registrations of Trademark in India, see the video below -

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DHRUV JAIN