Trademark Filing

A trademark is a sign which is capable of serving as an indicator of commercial origin. A good trademark, or logo, makes your particular product or service stand out. At a time when the range of goods and services is ever increasing, a trademark is an ever more important part of a company. A trademark is what will represent you and your reputation.

Trademarks offer the various protection rights. There are certain requirements which your trademark must meet, in order to be able to protect it. It must, for example, be unique and be distinguishable from others. Before you apply for trademark protection, you should find out if it meets the requirements that have been set.

The Madrid Protocol is a treaty that enables you to file an international trade mark application.

In India, application for a trademark is made at one of the five offices of the Trade Marks Registry located at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad. This will depend on the place where you reside or have your main place of business. You will need to do a pre-filing search before filing your trademark.

Once you register your trademark, you will be issued an official receipt with a TM number. Then an examination report is filed within three months from application. You will get a response to your registration either by an affidavit, a hearing or by an interview. Your application will be looked at to ascertain if it does not conflict with existing registered or pending trademarks.

After the objections raised by the registrar are overcome, your application is then published in the Indian Trade Marks Journal, with an endorsement stating either that it has been accepted or that it is being published before acceptance. Once it is published, any person has three months (which can be extended to a month at the registrar's discretion) to file a notice of opposition to registration. Acceptance or refusal of your trademark application will be considered once the opposition proceedings have been completed. Based on this, an examination report is issued.

The term of registration of a trademark is 10 years. This may be renewed for a further period of 10 years on payment of the renewal fees. However, non-usage of a registered trademark for a continuous period of five years is a valid ground for cancellation of registration of such trademark at the behest of any aggrieved party.

In various jurisdictions a trademark may be sold with or without the underlying goodwill which subsists in the business associated with the mark. However, this is not the case in the United States, where the courts have held that this would "be a fraud upon the public". In the U.S., trademark registration can therefore only be sold and assigned if accompanied by the sale of an underlying asset. Examples of assets whose sale would ordinarily support the assignment of a mark include the sale of the machinery used to produce the goods that bear the mark, or the sale of the corporation (or subsidiary) that produces the trademarked goods. It means getting a permit from the trademark owner ( the licensor) to a third party, in order to commercial use the trademark legally. Which is a contract form between the two has all the policy and content scope.

The essential provisions to a trademark license identify the trademark owner, the third party (licensee), in addition to both policy and the goods or services agreed to be licensed. Most jurisdictions provide for the use of trademarks to be licensed to third parties. The licensor (usually the trademark owner) must monitor the quality of the goods being produced by the licensee to avoid the risk of trademark being deemed abandoned by the courts. A trademark license should therefore include appropriate provisions dealing with quality control, whereby the licensee provides warranties as to quality and the licensor has rights to inspection and monitoring.

A trademark portfolio management and trademark maintenance services to manage a client"s national and international trademark portfolio, wherein the firm act as a single point of contact for a client having international trademark portfolio for management and maintenance of the portfolio. Our proprietary portfolio management software, having trademark intelligence enables us to offer high quality and user friendly portfolio management services. Our portfolio management services include:

1. Single platform to access a client's international trademark portfolio
2. Single point of contact for dealing with national and international trade marks
3. Best prices for trademark filing, trademark prosecution, trademark registration and trademark maintenance in all countries without compromising on quality
4. Complete file history of each trademark and document retrieval
5. Time line tracking and automated alert mechanism to meet deadlines
6. Latest trademark status update
7. Renewal fee payment
8. Co-ordination with foreign trademark attorneys

An opposition is a proceeding, allowed in most trademark jurisdictions, in which a party seeks to prevent a pending application for a mark from being granted registration. Although the specific grounds for bringing an opposition vary by jurisdiction, a party that believes it will be damaged by a resulting registration may oppose an application for that mark

Trade Mark analysis reports enable clients to make decisions with regard to Trade Mark use, Opposition possibility, chances of successful infringement and so on.

Trade Mark Search and Analytic services for clients to protect their Trade Marks. All our search reports are accompanied by a Trade Mark opinion that analyzes the possibility of registering the client's Trade Mark. Our systematic search methodology and experience in Trade Mark Law enables us to provide value added search and analysis reports.