Trademark is a special unique sign like designs, pictures or even expressions that are used to identify goods or services from a certain company and it also differentiates products or services from one company to the other company.
In India, trademarks are listed by Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks, Ministry of Commerce and India, Government of India. Trademarks are registered under the Trademark Act, 1999. This Act gives the owner of the trademark, the power to sue for losses when breach of trademarks happen. Registered trademarks are used to safeguard the company’s investment in the brand/symbol. For businesses, registered trademarks are intellectual property. You can trademark the following:
- Letter
- Word
- Number
- Phrase
- Logo
- Graphics
- Sound mark
- Smell
- Mix of colors
Benefits of trademark registration in India:
- Legal protection
- Product differentiation
- Brand recognition
- Creation of an asset
- Business valuation and goodwill
Who can apply/minimum requirement: The applicant mentioned in the Trademark Registration Form will be declared as the owner of the trademark once the trademark is registered any individual, company and a LLP may register for a trademark
Process of registering Trademark:
- Physical/offline:
- Choosing a trademark and identifying which class you belong to. There are 45 classes currently, out of which 1-34 are for goods and 35-45 are for services
- It is advisable to conduct a search to check whether your chosen trademark is similar to the already registered one.
- You can either file your trademark under one class or multiple classes. One class filing you will be filing TM-1 form, whereas one can apply for multiple class filings.
- Online:
- Search online, whether the trademark chosen by you is already registered or not
- Prepare a trademark application
- Filing the application of brand name registration: It can be done offline as well as online. Offline filing will take at least 15-20 days for you to receive the receipt of acknowledgement, whereas in online filing you will receive the receipt of acknowledgement instantly on the government website
- The Registrar will check whether you have followed the terms of the existing law
- The Registrar will publish your brand name in the Indian Trade Mark Journal after the process of examination
- The Registrar will accept your trademark application if no opposition is being raised within 3 or 4 months from the date of publication. The Registrar will issue the Registration Certificate with the Trademark Registry seal