Trademark Registration in India – An Overview

Creating a brand requires significant time, effort, and investment. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that you possess the rights to use your brand’s logo, tagline, product shape and packaging, sound, fragrance, color combinations, and any other distinctive elements. Trademarks are a form of intellectual property that differentiates your products or services from competitors in the market.

In India, the Trademark Act of 1999 allows for trademark registration, providing exclusive ownership rights and prohibiting others from using the registered mark, benefiting the owner of the registered mark.

After registering a trademark, the applicant and the brand can use the “TM” symbol. It’s essential to register a trademark in India to safeguard the brand name. It’s usually advisable to seek professional assistance when registering a trademark since the process involves several steps and requires constant government follow-up.

As a trademark, what are the things that can be registered?

Many aspects of your brand image can be registered as a trademark. The aspect you need to consider to register a trademark online is which aspect of your brand stands out to your customers. Pick that aspect(s) for applying for a trademark in india.

1. Name

a. Product Name: You can register a particular product’s name as a trademark. Apple’s iPod is a product name trademark.

b. Business Name: Registering a company name as a trademark is the most common route businesses take. Ex: Bajaj.

c. Person’s Name/Surname: If your name plays an important part in generating revenue, then you can even trademark your name! Ex: Shah Rukh Khan has trademarked his name.

d. Abbreviations: Abbreviations of a company or brand name can also be a trademark. Ex: BMW.

2. Logo/Symbol

It is highly recommended to trademark a logo because it visually represents your brand. Your customers can recollect a logo faster than a name. A great example of a brand registration in India is the ‘swoosh’ of Nike.

3. Tagline

If you have a tagline for your brand, you can go ahead and trademark that as well. A tagline tells your customers what you stand for as a business. For example, KFC ‘It’s finger lickin’ good’.

4. Other Options

a. Colour Mark: You can register a trademark online for a colour or a combination of colours. (Ex: Cadbury has trademarked the colour royal blue)

b. Sound Mark: Musical notes or sounds can be trademarked via online trademark registration if we can prove that it’s distinctive. Nokia has trademarked its tune.

c. Scent Mark: Even scents can be trademarked in online trademark registration.

1. STEP 1 – Filing of Trademark Application

   The trademark application is submitted within 24 hours of filing it with appropriate documentation and payment. The trademark filing process is completely online, and an instant acknowledgement is issued immediately after the submission of the application. After the issuance of the acknowledgement receipt, the applicant may begin using TM over the trademark.

   STEP 2 – Processing of Application at Trademark Office

   After the application is submitted, it is thoroughly examined for any flaws. If any mistakes are found after the evaluation, the TM office either flags the application for further examination or declares that the application filing has failed. The errors must be corrected in either case.

   STEP 3 – Examination of Trademark Application

   A trademark examiner looks over the trademark application to determine whether or not the trademark is qualified for registration. After reviewing the trademark application, the examiner publishes an examination report outlining his findings.

   STEP 4 – Reply to Examiner Report

   The trademark applicant must respond to the examination report within 30 days of its receipt. The response to the examiner’s report is a critical drafting that can either help or hinder the trademark application. We strongly encourage applicants to assist us by providing as much information and documentation as possible, so that we can prepare a detailed and accurate response to the Examination Report.

   STEP 5 – Show Cause Hearing

   After receiving a written response to the examination report, the examiner either gets satisfied with the reply or calls the applicant for a show cause hearing. It is the result of the hearing that further decides the fate of the Trademark application.

   STEP 6 – Publication of Trademark

   The trademark application is published in the trademark journal once the examiner is satisfied that the trademark is valid. This either happens at the examination stage or at the show cause hearing based on the status of the application. Third parties may object to the trademark registration, but, if no objections are received within 90 days from the date of hearing, the process of registration shall move to the next step.

   STEP 7 – Issuance of Trademark Registration Certificate

   The next step is the registration of the trademark by the registrar. After the registrar successfully registers the trademark, he issues a Certificate of Trademark Registration, valid for ten years from the date of issuance. The trademarks must be renewed after every ten years to extend its validity period.

Documents Required

Initially, you have to provide us with the following details:

Applicant’s name
Business type
Business objectives
Brand/logo/slogan name
Registration address

The documents required are:

Signed Form-48
Identification proof of the signatory
Address proof of the signatory
Business proof (depends on the type of business)
Udyog Aadhar/MSME registration certificate (optional).