Trademark Objection in India
The Trademark Objection is an instance of raising certain questions/objections by the Trademark Examiner, in order to facilitate proper and perfect registration of the filed trademark/service mark. Thus, the trademark objection is a governmental objection concerned with easy and impeccable registrability of the filed trademark. The trademark examination and making of any relevant objections, is one of the most significant processes or stages during the entire registration procedure. Provided below, is very informative and beneficial information regarding trademark objection in india, and our prompt and punctilious services for tackling this government objection, and other tasks related with trademarks and service marks.
After receipt of the filed application for trademark registration in Form TM-1, the Trademark Registry Office conducts a comprehensive examination and scrutiny to check and verify the registrability (as per the Trade Marks Act of 1999 and all amendments made thereto so far) of the filed trademark/service mark, within entire India. Some of the most common grounds for objection have been the following- Lack of Indubitable Distinctiveness (Section 9 of the Act)
- Striking and Serious Similarities with the previously Registered or currently Pending Trademarks (Section 11 of the Act)
- Possibility of Hurting the Religious Sentiments
- Use of some Offensive or Obscene Word(s) or Image(s)
- Use of Geographical Name(s) or International Proprietary Name(s)
- And, many other grounds described in the Indian Trade Marks Act of 1999 and the Trade Marks Rules of 2002, and all amendments made thereto so far.
In most cases any such objecting to trademark application can be overcome through timely and proper response to the concerned Registrar of Trade Marks. The applicant has to appease the objections of the trademark examiner, within only 30 days counted from the date of publication of the Examination Report. The application for registration of a trademark can be abandoned, if the Registrar does not get proper and brisk trademark objection reply or response from the applicant for appeasement of the raised objections. Personal interview or hearing may also be required to satisfy the Registrar, for further processing of the application.
Trademark Objection vs. Opposition
While the trademark objection is instituted by the trademark examiner (after thorough examination of the filed trademark), the trademark opposition is raised by any third-party. This third-party could be a company (owning a similar trademark registered or filed previously) engaged in the same or different field of business than the field of the applicant company, or any person who feels that the registration of the proposed trademark of the applicant is likely to harm his/her business or the public at large in anyway. The interested opponent has to file the application for trademark opposition ( through the Form TM-5 http://ipindia.nic.in/tmr_new/first_schedule_forms/tm-5.pdf ) within a period of Three Months, counted from the date of publication of the proposed trademark in the Indian Trade Marks Journal. However, the opponent is essentially required to present justifying and convincing grounds for his opposition, which could be any or more of the above-mentioned grounds, or plagiarized themes, partial or objectionable extent of duplicity, possibility to cause confusion amid consumers, and so on.
In case, when there is no objection from the concerned Trademarks Registry Office, or no opposition raised by the owners of previously registered or filed trademarks, then the proposed trademark will be given prompt and final approval for proper registration. But, when there is the government objection or opposition from any company/person, then, sorting out all the disputing affairs will be made first, before giving the final permission for registration of the proposed trademark by the applicant.
To avail our prompt and expert legal services for appeasing government objection (to the filed trademark) or making/tackling a trademark opposition, interested companies may send a mail to: Contact@TrademarksIndia.net or just contact over: +91-8800-100-281