All About Perfect Trademark Registration in India for Desired Sector!

A 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 in India 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.

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), Berne 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.

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.