All About Trademark Registration Process Procedure

1. Trademarking a Brand Name

By trademarking you Brand or company name, you are protecting your brand Goodwill, it’s reputation and your ideas, you also secure your investment made to create brand trust among the customers. At the same time trademarking process itself will take the time to get registration of trademark under trademark Act 1999.

The process of trademark registration in India is now easy and convenient in such a way that you can trademark any one of the below thing even having combination of the following:

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:

2. Trademark Registry

In 1940 the Trademark Registry was established in India And Trademark registration act was passed in 1999. Head office of trademark registry is based in Mumbai has there branch office in New Delhi, Chennai, Ahmadabad, Kolkata. Trademark registry as the functioning body, the trademark registry implements all the rules and regulation as per Trademark Act 1999 in India.

3. Who Can Apply For a Trademark?

Any Individual owner or organization can apply for trademark registration to protect from unauthorized uses. In Trademark application form the section mentioned as proprietor is the owner of trademark or brand. Trademark application can also be filled through name of Private limited company or Limited Liability partnership (LLP), As an Individual owner, trust, And Society.

4. How to Register a Trademark

There are few steps involved in trademark registration process and the process of trademark registration is process is done through trademark registry.

Below is the trademark registration process (step by step):

Choosing a trademark class:

The important point is to identify in which class your business belongs to. Choosing trademark class through trademark classification which can defines the scope of brand/business. Trademark has 45 class where in trademark class 1 to 34 is for manufacturer and Trademark class 34 to 45 is for services provider. You can find the trademark class list Here

Mark search:

Once you have chosen your trademark class it is advisable to conduct a search to check whether your selected trademark brand is already registered with trademark registry or not. You can conduct your trademark search report by self, simply go to trademark official website and you can find option name public search. Once you click on public search it will ask for trademark class and business name you wish to register with trademark.

It’s always advisable to hire Legal advisor for trademark registration.  To complete your Trademark registration process with all due Legal compliances. The legal advisor will help you until your trademark brand does not get registered.

Filing Trademark Application:

You can one or more trademark application in one or more classes for in word or device mark or both. For Trademark application you will have to file Trademark application form called TM-A.  Filings TM-A has cost two different costs as per type of entity.

Rupees 4,500 or rupees 5,000

In case if you wish to file you Trademark application on Individual owner the charges for online Trademark application will be Rs. 4,500/-. In same you wish to file same trademark application offline charges will be Rs. 5,000/-

Rupees 9,000 or rupees 10,000

In case of Private Limited company, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), one person company (OPC), Trust, and society. You will have to pay  Rs. 9,000/- for online Trademark application, in case you wish to file your Trademark application off-line then you will have to Pay Rs. 10,000/-

While filings the trademark form online make sure you should not make any mistake in trademark application this may lead to slow down your trademark application process or even lead to rejection of your trademark application.

You can file your trademark application by yourself or through an agent

5. Online Trademark Registration Procedure

Step 1: Trademark classification

Trademark classification is just and simple process to know whether in which class our business falls into. Trademark has 45 classes. Class 1 to Trademark class 34 is for manufacturer and Trademark class 34 to class 45 is for service provider.  To get our trademark registered successfully it is necessary to do proper trademark classification.

Step 2: Trademark Search

Trademark search report or trademark public search is to know whether our brand is registered already or being used by someone else from earlier. A proper trademark search report can improve the possibility of getting brand name registered with trademark department. Avoid using generic word in brand name. Brand name should be unique with spelling and also it should phonetically not similar registered or know brand.

Step 3: Preparing a trademark application

The following are the supporting documents required for filing online trademark application.

1. Applicant or company name.
2. Registered address of proprietor or company.
3. Scope of Business.
4. Trademark user date (Since when the brand name exist).
5. TM-48 Power of Attorney (In case if you are filing trademark application by agent or attorney).
6. Trademark user Affidavit (Applicable only if you are using your trademark brand name before filing trademark application).

Step 4: Filing the application of brand name registration

Trademark registration application filing TM-A has two ways Manual trademark application or Online trademark application. Trademark application offline can be filled to the trademark offices nearest to jurisdiction and after submission of offline trademark application you will get receipt of acknowledgement after waiting 10 to 15 days and Online Trademark application can be filled using TM-A online application form and can get receipt and acknowledgement instantly from trademark registry. Once you receive trademark application number you are eligible to use TM with your brand name.

Step 5: Examining the process of the brand name application

Once trademark application filled it may be online or offline, the registrar of trademark will verify the trademark application that whether all the details mentioned in trademark application is as per law. In case if he finds any queries regarding details mentioned in application he will issue his examination report. And same application has to resubmit the raised query through reply filings of trademark application within 30 days of examination report issued.

Step 6: Publication of your brand in the Indian Trade Mark Journals

Once the examiner is satisfied through the application submitted for brand registration of reply filings of raised queries by trademark registrar.  The examiner advertise/publish brand into trademark journal for 4 to 5 months. Once the brand is advertise for 30 to 90 days and it has no opposition from third party from the date of publication. When there is no opposition, the registrar will proceed the trademark application towards the issuance of trademark registration certificate i.e @ R Mark.

Step 7: Trademark Opposition

If any opposition raised by third party, within 3 months from the date of trademark publication in the trademark journal, the registrar of trademark will issue the copy of notice of the opposition. You need to make reply filings of opposition raised within 3 months of trademark application published in trademark journal. You need to reply to the opposition of notice by filing counter-statement within one month from the date of notice received. If you fail to file the counter-statement within months, then the application will get abandoned and deemed to be abandoned and rejected.

At the same, if there is no opposition raised with 3 month from the date of publication. Your brand name will straight away proceed towards the issuance of trademark registration certificate.

Step 8: Hearing on Trademark Opposition

If there is No opposition to brand then the hearing to trademark opposition will not apply

If your trademark application is opposed by third party and you file your counter-statement with two months, same the registrar of trademark will send the copy of counter-statement filled to the third party opposing the trademark registration.

After filing the counter statement, supportive evidence must be filled by the parties. At the same place the registrar will give the opportunity of hearing after filing the evidence of trademark. After hearing from both the parties the registrar will decide whether to abandoned the trademark application of to proceed for trademark registration and issuance of trademark registration certificate.

Step 9: The trademark registration certificate issuance

The Registrar will acknowledge your brand name application assuming that there’s no resistance being raised inside the specified time of 90 days or on acknowledgment of your brand name application later brand name resistance hearing. Goodness! Furthermore this will be the most joyful second for you as the Registrar gives the Registration Certificate with the Trademark Registry seal.

Right from the second you have been given with your declaration, you can utilize the enlisted brand name image (®) alongside your image name.Thus, with this blog entry, we feel that even a fledgling can see about making a brand name and enrolling it effectively.

6. Status of utilization

Whenever you have gotten the affirmation of the recording of the application you will get a designation number. You can check the advancement of the application online with this designation number. This will require some investment, in the event that there is a walk in the park with the documenting then you will get to know whether your application is endorsed or dismissed in 18 two years. Assuming there is an issue then this might take longer.

Documents are focused on as per the recording date, thusly the more it takes the greater need your application gets. The other advantage about documenting the application is that regardless of whether it hasn’t been endorsed you can utilize the TM image close to your imprint, whenever you have accepted your apportioning number.

7. Enlistment

When your brand name is endorsed the vault will give you a brand name enlistment testament. This will authoritatively affirm that your brand name has been enlisted and is currently secured. The enrollment will be legitimate for a long time from the date of the documenting of the application. Later this period you can reestablish the brand name once more. Restoration should be possible endlessly.

Kindly Note: A brand name is just secured and legitimate in India and doesn’t warrant any worldwide status.

8. Top 8 Things You Need to Know Regarding Trademark Registration

A brand name can be one of your organization’s most important resources. It is a type of distinguishing proof and contributes fundamentally towards building the organization’s public picture. A brand name is a visual image – a word, name, numbers, mark, logo, a blend of tones and so forth It is a sign of uniqueness and assists the clients with distinguishing a specific brand or organization.

The Trademark Act, 1999, oversees the laws identified with brand names and their registration.The brand names in India are enrolled by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, (Office of the Registrar of Trademarks), Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Government of India.

Investigate the main 8 things you really want to be familiar with brand name enrollment:

A Visual Representation

The kinds of brand names you can get enlisted very fluctuate. The following are a couple of types:-

An Intangible Asset

Consider the way that your business fabricates a rumored name and turns out a fruitful brand. A brand name, being a kind of licensed innovation, carries stacks of advantages to the organization. When a brand name is enlisted, it turns into an elusive resource that can be exchanged, diversified, industrially contracted and appropriated.

Security Against Infringement and Other Legal Protection

The proprietor of an enlisted brand name can practice his legitimate freedoms on the off chance that there is any encroachment with respect to the proprietor’s logo, image, a motto that has a functioning brand name against it. The proprietor has the privilege to sue any outsider that utilizes the brand name without the earlier authorization of the proprietor of the brand name.

Brand name Search

A brand name search is typically completed to check assuming a specific brand name as of now exists. The hunt can be led through the public authority’s Indian Trademark Registry data set or an outsider specialist organization site.

Class Selection

The labor and products here are arranged into 45 unique areas. Every area is alluded to as a class. Each logo or brand name is to be enlisted under the proper class at the hour of utilization. Out of the 45 distinct classes, 34 of those classes contain item classes, and the excess 11 are for administration.

Willful, not Compulsory Registration

The enlistment of a brand name is done on a deliberate premise. In any case, assuming a brand name is enrolled, it holds substantial proof that the responsibility for brand name has a place with the individual who has required the work to enlist it. All lawful choices will be agreeable to the party that had the brand name enrolled.

Legitimacy

An enrolled brand name has a time of legitimacy that stretches as long as 10 years before it must be restored once more. Nonetheless, the restoration interaction might be started distinctly inside one year before the expiry of the enlisted brand name. On the off chance that one neglects to do as such, the brand name will be taken out. Indeed, even on expulsion, the brand name can be reestablished through what is known as reclamation of the brand name in the endorsed structure.

Brand name Symbols

Exchange Mark (TM) and Service Mark (SM)

This represents that the brand name has not yet been enrolled, yet an application for the equivalent is forthcoming. It is put up to caution outsiders in case they encroach upon something very similar. There is no particular lawful importance as such on the grounds that the application has not yet been supported by the specialists.

R Symbol

On the endorsement of the brand name application, you, as the glad proprietor of the recently enrolled brand name, are engaged to show the R image close to the brand name. This represents that the brand name is formally enrolled, that encroachment of any sort by an outsider will be deserving of law.

It isn’t compulsory to show the R image. Notwithstanding, it ensures the proprietor of the brand name in a manner that, would it be a good idea for anyone anybody rip-off the genuine item, on suing the outsider for encroachment, he has an option to recuperate every one of the benefits that were lost. This is on the grounds that the court requires the proprietor to demonstrate that the infringer knew about the way that the brand name was enlisted but went on to utilize it with practically no earlier consent.

C Symbol

The C image is for the most part used to connote copyright that the proprietor has over some imaginative work. This incorporates:

• Work of art Photography
• Videography
• Abstract Works
• Programming

The C image is substantial for a lifetime. The image is utilized with the copyright holder’s name and the extended period of the main distribution in the nation where the work was protected. All things considered, there is a great deal that one should know about with regards to brand names and their enrollment. The cycle, in itself, is very precarious, which is the reason the candidate should complete appropriate exploration concerning something similar. Thusly, enrolling your brand name has benefits galore furnished it is finished with due care.

9. Advantages of Trademark Registration in India

Brand name is an exceptional image or sign which might be a name or numeral or mix of shadings for ID of your labor and products. You can acquire a brand name enlistment under the Trademarks Act, 1999.

Brand name empowers you and an outsider to recognize your items and administrations from those having a place with your rival. In any case, it would be useful to remember that geological names, normal names, normal exchange words and normal contraction can’t be enrolled as a brand name.

Aside from being novel, a Trademark ought to be not difficult to utilize, make your items attractive and make memorability for your items. Brand name enlistment enjoys a few benefits and advantages to the proprietor:

Lawful insurance: Upon brand name enlistment, Trademarks are delegated licensed innovation and are subsequently shielded from encroachment. Brand name enlistment additionally presents a selective right to the utilization of the brand name according to the “Class” of products or administration it addresses. Whenever you have documented the brand name application, the Symbol “TM” can be utilized with your items. The image “R” can be placed into utilization solely after you have acquired enlistment of your brand name. Further, you can utilize the ® image just for the products or potentially benefits recorded in the enlistment certificate. In the instance of unapproved utilization of an enrolled brand name, you can look for alleviation for encroachment in fitting courts in the country.

Item separation: Trademark enlistments are particular to the labor and products they address. Brand name will empower separation of your item as against the results of your rivals. Additionally, since brand name enlistment will be substantial for the whole class of labor and products so addressed, it will help in unmistakably recognizing your items. Clients remarkably recognize items conveying diverse brand name, subsequently making a client base for your item.

Memorability: Customers partner an item’s presentation, quality, highlights, etc with the organization making such items. They recognize the item for the most part by the logo, which would be an enrolled brand name. Brand name enlistment works with memorability for your labor and products. It additionally makes altruism related with the brand. Consequently, your image is perceived just as conveys a market esteem over the long run. Memorability invites new clients while holding steadfast clients.

Production of a resource: Trademark enlistment makes a resource for a business endeavor. Brand name is perceived as an immaterial resource for bookkeeping and annual expense purposes. Brand names are protected innovation and convey a worth related with the items they address. Brand names can be sold, diversified, alloted or monetarily took advantage of in some other way. You can perceive the worth or cost related with brand names in the books of records, and furthermore guarantee an allowance for deterioration and perceive pay from something similar.

Business valuation and generosity: Trademarks enrolled and connected with your items upgrade your general business worth, altruism and total assets in the business. Your brand name imparts your quality confirmation, particular highlights of your items and your association’s central goal. Brand names add to the development of your business. They assist with holding faithful clients and ensure the altruism of your business.

Brand name acknowledgment: Trademark enrolled in India is substantial for quite some time from the date of recording of an application . Nonetheless, the brand name can be additionally reestablished. For a situation where you need to utilize your brand name outside India or grow your business outside India, you really want endorsement or brand name enrollment in the individual nations. In such cases, your brand name enrollment and business in India goes about as a base to acquire enlistments outside India.

Business development: A brand name sets up an association between the clients and the results of an endeavor. With proficient or novel items, you can make a client base. Your brand name helps you in holding and growing the client base. Enlistment of your brand name gives elite privileges of utilization for a very long time and ensures your business incomes. Business ventures can use the advantages of a client base by introsducing new items and extending their business.

10. Much of the time Asked Questions

Can unfamiliar candidates additionally apply for the enlistment of their brand names in India?

Ans. Under the Madrid Protocol (the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks dated 1891 which went into power on December 1, 1995, and came into procedure on April 1, 1996), a worldwide brand name application might be recorded through the brand name office of the candidate. This brand name office is otherwise called the Office of Origin. The Office of Origin gets the application and afterward advances it to the WIPO.

What is the Madrid Protocol?

We should attempt to comprehend this concurrence with the assistance of an example.Imagine you have a brand name application for the imprint SKIDROW in India which has as of now been enrolled or has been applied for. The subsequent stage is record an application with the International Bureau (IB) with the subtleties according to the application in India. You would then be able to pick out of the 122 nations that are involved with the Madrid Protocol where you would like to record. Every one of the workplaces that have been chosen will get similar subtleties and the brand name SKIDROW will be treated as though it was recorded in that specific nation straightforwardly.

Are there any benefits of documenting under the Madrid Protocol?

A couple of them are drilled down:-

Normal date of reestablishment for every one of the brand names.

Corrections to the imprints will go through the IB, consequently records are kept up with working with simpler reviews.

Costs are similarly lesser.

How can one enlist a brand name under the Madrid Protocol?

Application The brand name should be enlisted or if nothing else applied for with the Indian Trademark Office with the goal for it to be qualified for documenting under the Madrid Protocol. The Indian Trademark Office will then, at that point, ensure that the subtleties in the worldwide application are equivalent to those in the essential application/enrollment. The date on which the global application was documented is additionally to be made note of and afterward the application is sent to the WIPO.

WIPO Examination The WIPO, on getting the application, then, at that point, leads a conventional assessment to check the consistence of the application with the legal necessities. On the perception of any abnormalities found, the vital changes for a similar should be done inside 90 days. Assuming it isn’t helped inside the specified time, the application stands “Deserted”.

WIPO Publication If every one of the means until this point are accurately done, the application is recorded in the International Register and distributed in the WIPO Gazette of International Marks. An endorsement of International Registration will be shipped off the candidate by the WIPO. Further, the WIPO will advise the wide range of various brand name workplaces of the way that the candidate has decided to expand the security of that specific imprint.

Assessment by the Trademark Office of the Designated Country The Trademark Office of the Designated Country further inspects the application for confirmation with the appropriate laws according to that specific country. Inside 12-year and a half, the acknowledgment or refusal of the application will be passed on to the WIPO, who thusly will advise the candidate about the choice regarding the brand name office of the Designated Country.

Commercial and Registration The imprint will then, at that point, be promoted in the Indian Trademarks Journal where it will be available to outsider resistance for a time of 4 months. Without resistance later the time of 4 months, the insurance for the brand name will be allowed by the Indian Trademarks Registry.

Could the Madrid Protocol application be altered and recharged?

The application concerning those that are assigning India should be made uniquely at WIPO, who thus will inform the Indian Trademark Office. Any correction to be made in the application can be made by documenting a solitary application at WIPO which will be reflected in the wide range of various assigning nations.