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Category: Intellectual Property

Another huge step into computerization – Indian Trademark Registry

February 25, 2014
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| Categories: Intellectual Property, Trademark

We all know that Indian Trademark Office is religiously working into fully computerizing its day-to-day operations.  More recently in the first week of February 2014, i.e., on 05/02/14, a notification came as a surprise announcing that several TM forms would be accessible through e-filing platform and we also wrote on it Indian trademark registry goes 90% computerized. Another pleasant surprise came a few moments ago when our Indian Trademark Office published yet another notification on its site which read that a few other forms were added through the e-filing platform.  There are currently a total of 87 forms and currently as per the latest notification, a total of 57 forms were accessible through the e-filing platform. It is indeed a...

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TRADEMARK OBJECTION Vs OPPOSITION IN INDIA– EXPLAINED

February 7, 2014
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| Categories: Intellectual Property, Trademark

It is a common misconception among the general public that trademark registration just begins and ends with filling up a form (TM-1) and submitting it before the trademark office.  Contrastingly, a trademark application goes through several stages before it is finally registered, and in some cases, even after registration, revocation or cancellation proceedings are initiated by third parties under several grounds. In other countries, objection and opposition are used interchangeably.  However, in India, they denote different type of proceedings.  Objection is instituted by trademark examiner and opposition, by a third-party. What is objection? Objection is a preliminary refusal issued by the trademark examiner after examination of your application.  Some common grounds for objection are a) lack of distinctiveness (Section 9)...

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E-filing services – Indian Trademark Registry gets 90% digitized

February 5, 2014
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| Categories: Intellectual Property, Trademark

It has been quite some time since our Indian Patent and Trademark Office had launched its online e-filing platform.  Of note, the Copyright Board did also launch similar services in 2009, but it did not go well as planned and went completely dysfunctional in a few months of its launch. Most recently in November-December 2013, Indian Trademark Office introduced online facility for filing Madrid applications as well as filing reply to examination report.  What comes as a more pleasant news for stakeholders and public is that now our Trademark Office accepts the following forms through its E-filing platform: Renewal - TM-12, TM-10,  and T-23 Opposition - TM-5, TM-26, TM-6 and TM-7 Correction - TM-16 Legal Certificate - TM-46 and TM-70...

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How to (not) kill your trademark?

January 26, 2014
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| Categories: Intellectual Property, Trademark

What is this all about? "What is all about killing a trademark?  How can you kill a trademark?  It is an intangible property, right?" I know some of these questions may pop up in your mind while you read this. Killing a trademark is very much possible and by doing so, you may not make it disappear completely from the world, but you will destroy its essential qualities. We are going to discuss here some issues revolving around:   how a trademark can lose its essential qualities; what happens after that; and how to prevent that from happening. A trademark, as we know, is primarily a negative right given to the registered owner by law.  However, the absolute (not always) right...

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Do-it-yourself trademark search in India

January 24, 2014
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| Categories: Intellectual Property, Trademark

This post is aimed at educating general public as to how to conduct a trademark search in India. Why you should do a search? To check if your trademark is already registered; To check if your trademark is already filed and pending to be registered; To identify the potential for objection and/or opposition; To check if your trademark would infringe on any registered or pending marks. How to do a search? Visit Indian Trademark Registry Website at https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx Please download the Guidelines to use Trade Mark Public Search containing detailed instructions on how to perform trademark search  

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Trademark objections at its peak at 98%

January 16, 2014
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| Categories: Intellectual Property, Trademark

It is not unusual for a trademark practitioner who have practiced before other jurisdictions to notice that the percentage of objections issued by the Indian Trademark Office is extremely higher when compared to other trademark offices such as USPTO, IPO, IP Australia, EU. [caption id="attachment_306" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Trademark Objection In India[/caption] We randomly picked a few monthly objection lists involving around 1000 applications from Classes 30 and 35 from 2013 and 2014 for a quick analysis. Around 98% of the application are objected at first instance. To our surprise, we discovered that about 98% of the trademark applications were objected at first.  We also observe that almost same percentage of objections are posted for hearing, albeit a detailed, well-drafted and comprehensive...

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