A Brief Introduction to Various Trademark Services in India for All

Trademarks and Service Marks form a vital and highly significant category of Intellectual Property of any company or firm; its other most prominent categories are Patents, Industrial Designs, Copyrights, Geographical Indications, etc. This brief article gives exclusive information about the various processes or services linked with only the IP category of trademarks and service-marks pertaining to all 45 classes of the Nice Classification (of Goods and Services).

The trademark services or processes are all those tasks which a company (or the owner of a registered trademark or service mark) may require to perform or get done from time to time, in order to remain legally right and secure, steadily progressive, and maintain one’s distinguishing reputation in the concerned marketplace. These trademark processes are described separately under the lower paragraphs. In India at present, these trademark-related processes are performed and regulated as per the provisions and regulations given in the Indian Trade Marks Act of 1999 and the new Indian Trade Marks Rules of 2017. Again, depending upon the location of a company, any of the five zonal offices of Trademark Registry (well-based in Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennai, and Ahmedabad) is to be approached for executing any of the following main trademark processes, at any given point of time: ----

• TTrademark Registration --- Proper registration of a trademark or service mark (referred to as ‘mark’ thenceforth) is inevitable for availing and maintaining all rights given to the registered owner of a mark by the Trademark Registry. Only a unique mark is registrable.
• Trademark Renewal --- It is necessary for renewing the initial or previous registration of a mark, within every 10-year period. Protracted failure to such renewal may eventually result in removal of the mark from the Register of Trade Marks.
• Trademark Opposition --- It is a solemn and rigorous objection raised by a third party against the initial registration of any newly filed mark, or even a previously registered mark, based on certain convincing grounds.
• Trademark Prosecution --- This process may be performed before or after registration of a mark. The main purpose of this task is to make the desired changes or refinements in the specified mark.
• Trademark Watch and Monitoring --- The main objective of this process is to ensure that no any new mark is being registered or used anywhere in entire India, which is the same or objectionably similar to one’s registered mark.
• Trademark Infringement Litigation --- This litigation occurs when a company utilizes the registered mark of another company or a strikingly similar mark to it, without getting due authorization from the registered owner of the mark to do so.

It must be noted that maintaining indisputable distinctness of one’s trademark or service mark is vital and imperative for enjoying continuously the desired prominence, reliability, and profitability of one’s product or service in the concerned or target marketplace. Also, the jurisdictional area of every zonal office covers many surrounding States and Union Territories besides the State where the office is located.

Kavita is working as a consultant at a legal services in India. She is also an experienced and passionate writer who has been written many Blog and websites' content about Company registration and Trademark registration in India.