Types of trademark objections in India by trademark office

Given the widespread awareness of benefits of trademark registration at a global level, most business owners contemplate securing a trademark registration for their brand name prior or after launch.  Statistically speaking, one a miniscule percentage of business entities are able to exercise exclusive monopoly rights over their trademark even after registration and such advantage is only available to registrants of highly distinctive, arbitrary and fanciful marks. A good trademark is a mark that is arbitrary, invented, and fanciful marks that are highly distinctive, e.g., Pepsi, Canon, Kodak. Common rejections by trademark office It is appalling that less than 20% of trademark applications proceed straight to registration without receiving a preliminary objection or refusal by the trademark examiner.  Two most common...

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Domain name registration in India from a trademark law perspective – 7 things

Internet has revolutionized the way of conducting businesses in India to the point that now groceries and perishable goods are being sold online. This means business presence over the internet has become or is becoming inevitable for all kinds of businesses.  Not all businesses are luck enough to find domain names of their choices; some are often forced to use domain names way different than their business names. On the other hand, it is not uncommon to see certain domain names, tagged as "premium", selling for exorbitant prices, with other domain names being "blocked' (bought and parked) by internet-based companies or individuals without having any legitimate use for it. Domain Names and Trademarks Not too long ago, domain names have come to be recognized as a trademark or having a capability...

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Trademark fees to be increased again by 100%

Revised Trademark Fee

The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM) has put forth a Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015 for Public Comments. The draft includes a revised, inter alia, application fee and renewal fee. The current trademark application fee is Rs. 4000/- which was increased last year from Rs. 3500/-. Renewal fee towards a single class is Rs. 5000/- presently. The new fee structure proposes to increase the application fee to Rs. 8000/- for online applications and Rs. 8800/- for manual/paper filings, and renewal fee to be increased to Rs. 10000/- per class. [caption id="attachment_848" align="alignnone" width="300"] Revised Trademark Fee[/caption] While the fees are relatively lesser than foreign countries, the registration process still needs significant improvement,...

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Liquor company to face law suit for using Mahatma Gandhi’s image

Significance of Images and Designs in Brewing Industry Images and bottle designs play a vital role when it comes to liquor manufacturers as they greatly enhance the distinctiveness of brand. However, there are limitations when it comes to using certain names, images, etc., in particular those linked to National significance. In fact, when it comes to company names, only government-owned establishments can use the word such as "National". This is even applicable for domain names too. The case of "Gandhi-bot" trademark Now, a US-based liquor company, New England Brewing, is facing trouble for capitalizing on Mahatma Gandhi's reputation by featuring image resembling Mahatma. The Connecticut-based company went a step further to state that its intention was to pay homage and...

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The story and fate of Khadi trademark

It is nothing new for us as we have had similar past experiences and spent a few crores of exchequer's money to defend against biopiracy and intellectual property theft. Patenting of Turmeric and Neem, trademarking of Basmati in the past do not fade away easily. History now repeats itself and this time it is the Khadi trademark which is under dispute. The German company, named Khadi Natureprodukte GbR, has registered 'Khadi' as a trademark with the European agency, OHIM (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market). Spain-based OHIM is the nodal agency looking after Trademarks and Design Registration in the European Union. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a statutory body engaged in promoting and developing khadi and village...

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TM5 – a new framework by key players in trademarks

The TM5 is a conglomerating of the world’s top five trademark offices 1) China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) 2)  Europe’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) 3)  the Japan Patent Office (JPO) 4) South Korea’s Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) 5) the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These offices reportedly account for 70 percent of all trademark and design applications worldwide. The TM5 grew out of the Trademark Trilateral, a cooperative framework of the JPO, OHIM and the USPTO that was formed in 2001.  After expansions in 2011 and 2012 to include KIPO and SAIC, respectively, the group has had gradually evolved into its present form. The tmfive.org website contains the history and objectives of...

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