Trademark
(TM) or Service Mark (SM) is one of the vital and most significant intellectual
property assets of any economic entity, particularly in respect of its identity
& reputation and growth of its business/service. A trademark/service mark
is the intellectual property which distinguishes the product/service of the
owner company from those of other companies in the given marketplace (i.e. serves
as the Source-Identifier), along with helping in growing publicity &
commerce and goodwill of the owner company. Hence, a trademark/service-mark
must preferably be readily scintillating, inspiring distinction &
reliability, and highly elegant for enhancing publicity & profitability of
the owner entity. Therefore, a trademark or service-mark must possess the
following remarkable qualities --- uniqueness in design/graphics, imaginative
& eye-catching, and rigorously advertised & protected. A mark could be
two-dimensional or three-dimensional (3D).
The
Nice Classification of Goods and Services, which is worldwide recognized,
classifies the trademarks and service marks into 45 broad categories/classes,
based on the economic fields these pertain to. Thus, a trademark or
service-mark is registered under anyone or more of these 45 classes in India
and countries worldwide. For example, a trademark relating to the economic
field of explosives and firearms is to be registered under the Class-13; while
a service-mark belonging to the economic field of telecommunications is to be
registered under the Class-38, which is assigned to this service field.
For
registration and all other processes/purposes related with the various
trademarks and service-marks are carried out as per the provisions and
regulations of the Trademark Law of the country concerned. In India at present,
its trademark law is represented by
the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the new Trade Marks Rules, 2017; including all
amendments made thereto so far. Again, in entire India, there are five zonal
offices of Trademark Registry for regulating these all trademark related
processes; these are located in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, and Ahmedabad.
The jurisdictional area of each of these offices covers many States (and Union
Territories). The selection of any regional office is made based on the
location of the applicant.
As
far as the process of trademark registration inIndia is concerned, the application form used
for this purpose at present is the TM-A. Today, highly desired is the online
processing, which is cheaper also. The entire trademark registration procedure encompasses
the following main stages or tasks --
Only a properly registered
trademark offers its registered owner the rights related with authorized
commercial uses, drastic legal actions for protection (such as against
trademark infringement case by another company), and franchising or leasing of
the trademark. It must also be noted that, a duly registered trademark (also
holds good for a service mark) in India, also serves as the basis for registration
of the mark under all those International Trademark Treaties and Conventions
which are connected with India, such as the TRIPS Agreement (WTO), Madrid
Protocol (WIPO), Bernie or Paris Convention, and the European Union Trade Marks
(EU TM). Each of these trademark related conventions and treaties has numerous
member countries. Lastly, the registration of a trademark or service-mark in
India is valid just for ten years. Well within this period or soon after the
elapse of this period, the registered owner of the trademark must renew
(through Form TM-R) its registration to continue availing all the rights
offered by the trademark registry.- Conceptualization and Designing of a Unique and Scintillating Trademark or Service Mark
- Selection of the appropriate Trademark Class(es). This must be made carefully, in order to avert the cases of the Cancellation and Rectification of Trademarks (mentioned in Chapter VII of the Trademarks Act, 1999)
- Trademark Search across all trademark Databases in the country, to fortify unbeatable uniqueness of the newly-created trademark/service-mark. This makes the trademark readily registrable and impregnable to Trademark Opposition.
- Filing the application for trademark registration (Form TM-A) with the relevant zonal office. Now, an applicant may also file a request for the expedited processing of the submitted application up to the stage of registration through Form TM-M.
- Satisfying the Trademark Examiner/Registrar of Trade Marks
- Tackling any Trademark Opposition (Form TM-O) by other companies
- Presenting necessary Trademark Prosecution for perfect registration of the trademark in the desired form and class(es).
Phone/Whtsapp: +91-8800-100-281
Email: contact@TrademarksIndia.net
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