Dead or Abandoned Trademark - What is Dead Trademark?

"A dead trademark or abandoned trademark is the trademark which is no longer recognized or validated by any national/regional office of trademark registry".

There could be many diverse reasons for being a trademark or service-mark dead or abandoned, which are stipulated in paragraphs below. Information about how to claim or restore a dead trademark, is also provided separately in the lower section of this webpage.

What are the common reasons behind the abandonment of a trademark ?

Below are the most common reasons behind the abandonment of a trademark, which hold good for India and any other country worldwide :

1. Failure to Satisfy the Trademark Examiner/Registrar

   After submitting the application for registering a trademark, if the applicant fails to respond punctually or satisfactorily to the concerned trademark examiner/registrar, then the proposed trademark may be abandoned by the trademark registry office

2. Express Abandonment

   If the owner of any registered trademark fails to respond punctually or continually to the enquiries of the relevant office of trademark registry made from time to time, then the specified trademark may be deemed as abandoned. It could be because of the reason that the owner now no longer wants to use the trademark in commerce of the specified goods or products. Abandonment of any filed trademark by the applicant may also be made after losing a case of trademark opposition raised by a third party

3. Failure to Trademark Renewal

   Failure to the timely renewals of any registered trademark, especially within one year after the expiry date of its original registration/previous renewal in India, makes a trademark invalid and dead

4. Failure to Monitor and 'Genericide'

   Failure to securing distinctive identity of one's registered trademark, may result in making the trademark quite generic in people. A generic mark or word may not be sufficient as serving the purpose of a trademark/service-mark in the concerned jurisdictional marketplace

How to Claim or Restore a Dead Trademark ?

Claiming or restoring a dead trademark can be made possible, though with some probable hindrances or problems. This section provides very clarifying information in brief, to help the concerned people and companies located in India. Apart from helping new registrations of trademarks and service marks under all 45 classes of these in entire India, our highly prestigious and renowned IPR law firm of Delhi also offers services for claiming or restoring a dead trademark to Indian and global people and entities doing business in India.

To register an abandoned or dead trademark in India, the interested entrepreneur or company has to first ensure that the specified dead trademark is not in use by a person/entity located in entire India. For this purpose, necessary will be conducting a thorough ground search across the Indian trademark databases, business listings, and also on the internet. Even if it is found that the dead trademark is being used by an entity without getting that properly registered, registering the same will be impossible without consent of the user. Then, depending upon different cases, any of the following processes is to be performed for registering a dead trademark in India:

• Filing a fresh application (in Form TM-1) for registration of one's dead trademark through offering all necessary information about the forwarded trademark and related references
• Filing the application Form TM-13 [as stipulated in section 25(4) of the Indian Trade Marks Act of 1999] for restoration of one's dead trademark after its removal from the register of trademarks, along with all prescribed fees

To avail our expert and efficient services for registering or restoring a dead trademark in India, or new trademark registrations under any classes, please call over: +91-8800-100-281; or mail your queries or trademark issue to: Contact@TrademarksIndia.net .