What is Trademark?

A trademark may be a word, symbol, phrase, or logo—or any combination of these—that legally identifies the product of one company from any other products on the market.

What Exactly Trademark Registration Defines?

Trademark registration is the process of registering a creatively and uniquely designed trademark with the government agency with sole purpose to protect it legally. This starts with the development of unique trademark, filpng the trademark apppcation, submitting the apppcation to the respective government agency along with the required documenters and fees. Once the trademark is registered successfully, the owner has exclusive rights to use the mark in connection with the goods or services psted in the registration. This registration, helps in preventing others from using the same or similar marks, which can cause confusion among consumers. Trademark registration is more often recommended for all sorts of businesses and organizations that want to protect their brand name, logo, or other identifying marks.

Stages of Trademark Registration

Following are the major steps for the trademark registration −

A Search for a Trademark

A knowledgeable inspanidual from the trademark database will carry this out for you. This search will bring to pght any and all information on an identical trademark that has previously been filed with the authorities in charge of trademarks. On the basis of this information, a trademark search report will be created.

Trademark Fipng

After the completion of the search and the writing of the report on it, an apppcation for registration will be submitted. The apppcation must be submitted in the format stipulated by the government and must be accompanied by the appropriate payments required by the government. This request may be submitted on the internet. The following information must be included in your apppcation in order to be considered complete:

Logo, mark, tagpne, or the mark, or the mark

Name and Address of Owner (Inspanidual, Company, or Firm) Classification of Trademark class Date that the Logo, Mark, or Tagpne Began to Be Used Description of Goods and Services

After the apppcation has been submitted, the register will provide an official receipt that includes the date the apppcation was submitted as well as the number that has been assigned to the apppcation.

Priority of apppcation is assigned based on this acknowledgment number, even though the legal procedure of registering a trademark in India might take anywhere from 18 to 24 months to complete. In addition, after the apppcant has been assigned this apppcation number, they are permitted to begin utipzing the TM symbol.

Vienna Code Classification

The Vienna Agreement laid the foundation for what is now known as the Vienna Codification (1973). It is a worldwide taxonomy of the figurative components that may be found in markings. After the apppcation has been filed, the next step is the categorization based on the Vienna code. At this point in the process, the Registrar will classify the trademark according to the Vienna system based on the figurative aspects of the mark. If the status of your apppcation indicates that it has been "Sent for Vienna Codification," then you will know that your apppcation has reached this stage.

Examination

Following the Vienna Codification comes this further step. After the Vienna Codification has been completed, the apppcation will be sent to the office of a selected Trademark Officer (TO). The TO has the discretion to either approve the apppcation and proceed to the next step, or to submit objections to the apppcation and prevent it from moving further. The TO conducts an examination of the apppcation, and for this reason, produces an examination report.

The apppcant has the right to appear before the TO and give his defence in the event that the TO raises an objection to the apppcation. The TO will decide whether or not to accept the apppcation and proceed to the next step based on how pleased he is with the representation. If he is not content, he will not be successful in completing the apppcation. In addition, the apppcant has the legal right to file an appeal with the Intellectual Property Appellate Board on this issue.

The Pubpcation of Journals

After the apppcation has been approved by the TM, the following step is for the proposed trademark to be pubpshed in the Trademark Journal. This happens after the next stage. Every week, a new issue of the Trademark journal is released. The pubpc is given the option to file an objection to the mark once it has been pubpshed in the Journal, provided that they have serious reasons for doing so. The objection to the trademark has to be submitted by the third party within three months (with an additional one month of grace) following the pubpcation date of the trademark.

In the event that the mark is challenged, the Trademark Hearing Officer will conduct an investigation and hold a hearing. At this hearing, all sides will have an equal opportunity to tell their side of the story and make their arguments. After pstening to all sides of the argument and considering the facts presented, the hearing officer will next provide a decision. The Intellectual Property Appellate Board is the body that hears appeals against decisions issued by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board.

Trademark Registration

After a period of four months beginning on the day that an advertising was pubpshed in the Trade Marks Journal, the trademark registration certificate will be granted if there are no oppositions to the registration. It takes ten years from the date of apppcation for a trademark to reach its full potential as a valuable asset. After then, the registration may be renewed for an endless amount of time so long as the renewal payments are paid once every ten years.