Trademark Registration Process provides a company or an individual a complete ownership of the mark and protects it from the misuse by any third person. It gives legal right to take appropriate action against third party against an infringement of trademark.
The symbol ® indicates that specific trademark is registered by the owner.
The symbol ™ indicates trademarks for which a registration application is filed.
But if any person uses these symbols to deceive the market or by unregistered trademarks or in cases where no application for registration is filed it can lead to serious offence.
Trademark registration has many benefits:
- It will preserve a trademark for generations.
- It gives the ability to establish a right to the trademarked word, logo, and sound, graphic or even color combination.
- It protects the “mark” by preventing similar names from being registered by other businesses operating in the space.
- It develops a unique identity that associate the people with the specific brand.
Procedure for filing trademark in India is as follow:
1. Find the Trademark
The first step is the selection of a trademark.
search the trademark records, registry and ensures that the trademark does not resemble the registered mark.
It can be done online or through the trademark office.
The applicant can consult an experienced lawyer for an exhaustive search.
After thorough research, the application for registration in the trademark can be made in the prescribed form.
2. Form TM-1
The next step is the filling of form TM 1. The application for trademark can be made both online and offline. However, for online application, a Class III Digital Signature is required. For offline application, application to the Offices of the Trademark Registry is required.
The application for registration of trademark must contain the following particulars:
- “Mark”
- Trademark owner’s information,
- List of goods or services for which the trademark will be used.
Once the application is made, the Registrar will search for the uniqueness of name and will check the registered marks and pending applications to ascertain whether any such marks exists.
In case of any objection by the registrar for acceptance of application or to accept the application with certain term and conditions, amendments, limitations, etc., the same is communicated in writing to the applicant and the applicant has to revert back regarding their rectification within period of three months.
3. Use of Trademark
Now the Mark can be use with ™. But to use ® symbol, it would take up to 2 years if everything goes smoothly.
4. Examination Report
It takes atleast 3 to 6 months to complete. The process of questioning the applicant claim to the trademark starts. First the government will verify whether the application has any objections: if there is:
No Objection: then a letter of acceptance will be issued commonly known as TLA.
An Objection: If there is objection raised due to following reasons:
- If a proposed trademark is similar / identical or copy of already registered trademark.
- If a word use is unlawful and may hurt the sentiment of particular religion /religions.
If a government discarded the objection, the trademark will be eligible for advertisement in trade Mark journal.
5. Advertisement in Trade Marks Journal
It took 3 to 6 months to complete this. It is Free, but legal fees can be charged in case of opposition.
The trademark will be advertised in trademark journal and It will give third party and opportunity to oppose the published trademark.
The entry of a trademark will entails the date of registration, list of goods or services for which it is registered and other particulars.
The trademark registration will be 10 years and can be further renewed.
If no one opposes the particular trademark then in four month of its publication, a trademark registration certificate will be issued within 6 to 10 months.
if there is any opposition by third party , the process of obtaining certificate may extend to many more months .Both parties will get the opportunity to be heard.
6. Trademark Registration
Approximately average months of nine months time period will be required to issue a trademark certificate after publication of advertisement in Trademark Journal. The registered trademark is valid for a period of 10 years and it can be renewable.
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