Registration of Trade Marks

Trademarks are special unique signs that are used to identify goods or services from a certain company. They can be designs, pictures, signs or even expressions. It is important because it differentiates your products from the competitions. It can be associated with your brand or product. Trademarks are classified as intellectual property and therefore is protected from infringement. Trademarks and its rights are protected by the Trademark Act, 1999

To get the protection of trademark rights one has to register the trademark. It is important to register your trademark because it prevents others from copying your mark and misrepresenting other products with your mark. Trademarks help the customers to recognise the brand and the brand value in one look such as the logo of a tick sign for Nike or a jumping wildcat for Puma etc.

Unlike patents, trademark does not have a definite limitation period. Where a patent expires in 20 years a trademark registration expires after 10 years of its registration, but unlike patents, a trademark can be renewed again for another 10 years. This process can be indefinitely done, meaning as long as you keep renewing the trademark it will not expire and will continue to be under the protection of the Act.

Investing your time and money to build a particular brand and seeing the same brand name being used by another, robbing you of your hard-earned brand reputation is not an agreeable state of affairs. Many a time, trademark (TM) owners end up in protracted litigation because when the time was right, they did not do trademark registration in India of their brand name. Trademark registration process of the brand name is not a difficult task. A few simple steps, as explained below and you would have the much-needed legal protection of your brand name registration in India.

Trademarking a Brand Name

By trademarking your company’s name, you are protecting the brand, its reputation, and your ideas, all of which you undoubtedly invested a great deal of blood, sweat, and tear working on. And while the trademarking process itself will take time in all areas considered, nothing would be worse than not protecting your brand and potentially be faced with an infringement lawsuit from a larger company.

The process of brand trademark registration in India is now possible and convenient such that you can trademark any one of the below things or even a combination of the following:

• Letter
• Word
• Number
• Phrase
• Graphics
• Logo
• Sound Mark
• Smell or a mix of colors

Trademark Registry

The trademark registry was established in 1940 then came the Trademark Act which was passed in 1999. Currently, the trademark registry works as the operation or functional body of the Act. Or it can also be said to be working side by side. As a functioning body, the trademark registry implements all the rules and regulation of the trademark law in India.

The Head Office of the trademark registry is in Mumbai and it has branch offices in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kolkata. When registering a trademark, it is registered under the Trademark Act, 1999 and then the registry of trademarks registers it. In this process, the registry will check whether the registering mark meets all the conditions of the Act before registering it.

Step 1: Trademark Search

Many entrepreneurs do not comprehend the importance of a TM search. Having a unique brand name in mind is not good enough reason to avoid a TM search. TM search helps you to know if there are similar trademarks available and it gives you a fair picture of where your trademark stands, sometimes, it also gives you a forewarning of the possibility of trademark litigation. Why waste your money in time-consuming trademark litigation later when you can choose to avoid it in the first place?

Step 2: Filing Trademark Application

After you are sure that your chosen brand name or logo is not listed in the Trademark Registry India, you can opt for registering the same. The first step is to file a trademark application at the Trademark Registry India. Nowadays, filing is mostly done online. Once the application is filed, an official receipt is immediately issued for future reference.

Step 3: Examination

After a trademark application is filed, it is examined by the examiner for any discrepancies. The examination might take around 12-18 months. The examiner might accept the trademark absolutely, conditionally or object.

If accepted unconditionally, the trademark gets published in the Trademark Journal. If not accepted unconditionally, the conditions to be fulfilled or the objections would be mentioned in the examination report and a month’s time would be given to fulfill the conditions or response to the objections.

Once such response is accepted, the trademark is published in the Trademark Journal. If the response is not accepted, one can request a hearing. If in the hearing, the examiner feels that the trademark should be allowed registration, it proceeds for publication in the Trademark Journal.

Step 4: Publication

The step of publication is incorporated in the trademark registration process so that anyone who objects to the registering of the trademark has the opportunity to oppose the same. If, after 3-4 months from publication there is no opposition, the trademark proceeds for registration. In case there is opposition; there is a fair hearing and decision are given by the Registrar.

Step 5: Registration Certificate

Once the application proceeds for trademark registration, following publication in Trademark Journal, a registration certificate under the seal of the Trademark Office is issued.

Step 6: Renewal

The trademark can be renewed perpetually after every 10 years. Hence, your logo or brand name registration can be protected perpetually.

As seen from the above, trademark registration in India process does not require much effort. It is a simple process but one which is nonetheless very important for brand name registration. We, at Intepat, can help you with the entire process of registration without you worrying about deadlines and responses. Hence, understand the power of your brand name registration and take steps in protecting it today.