A trademark is what lets a customer tell one brand apart from another — a word, logo, sound or shape that signals where a product or service comes from. Once registered under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, it gives the owner exclusive nationwide rights to that mark for ten years, renewable indefinitely. Biswajit Sarkar takes clients through the full lifecycle of that right, from clearance search to enforcement.
Before a mark is filed, it needs to be checked against everything already on India's trademark register. A clearance search catches conflicts early, which is far cheaper than fighting an opposition later, and it also shapes how the mark and its class specification get drafted.
The IP India public search portal is checked for identical and phonetically similar marks within the relevant Nice Classification class, using wildcard and phonetic search to catch close variants a plain keyword search would miss.
Every mark filed or registered against a given proprietor can be pulled up directly, useful for auditing a client's own portfolio or scoping a competitor's existing filings.
Entering an application number brings up its current stage — examination, publication, opposition or registration — along with its journal number and renewal history.
Not every mark qualifies for registration — Section 9 bars marks that are merely descriptive or generic, and Section 11 bars marks that conflict with an earlier one. Once a mark clears both, registration runs through six connected stages.
The proposed mark is checked for distinctiveness and cleared against the register, then the goods or services it will cover are mapped to the correct Nice Classification class or classes.
Filed on Form TM-A, either online through the e-filing portal or at one of the five Trade Marks Registry offices — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai or Ahmedabad — on a "proposed to be used" or "used since" basis, generating an application number and filing date.
An examiner reviews the application against absolute grounds (Section 9) and relative grounds (Section 11), then issues an Examination Report. The applicant must respond within 30 days, addressing every objection raised.
If the Registrar isn't satisfied by the written response, a show-cause hearing is scheduled where the applicant can argue the mark's distinctiveness and registrability in person.
Once accepted, the mark is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal, opening a four-month window in which any person may oppose the registration.
If no opposition is filed, or an opposition is decided in the applicant's favour, the Registry issues the registration certificate — valid for ten years from the date of the application, renewable indefinitely thereafter.
A mark can be challenged at two different points — before it registers, and after. India keeps both routes open under the Trade Marks Act, each with its own procedure and its own forum.
Open to any person, filed on Form TM-O within four months of the mark's advertisement in the Trade Marks Journal. Grounds typically combine a lack of distinctiveness or descriptiveness under Section 9 with deceptive similarity to an earlier mark, bad faith, or a likelihood of public confusion under Section 11.
Filed by an aggrieved person before the Registrar or the relevant High Court, seeking to remove or correct a mark already on the register. Common grounds include wrongful registration, an entry made without sufficient cause, or non-use of the mark for a continuous period of five years and three months.
A trademark registration runs for ten years from the date of application, and it can be renewed indefinitely — but only if the renewal is filed on time. Miss the window entirely, and the mark is removed from the register.
Filed on Form TM-R, ideally within one year before the registration expires, extending protection for a further ten years each time, with no limit on the number of renewals.
A renewal filed after expiry can still be accepted within a six-month grace period against a surcharge, keeping the mark's protection continuous provided the fee is paid in time.
Once a mark is removed for non-renewal, Form TM-R can still be filed within one year of removal, with reasons for the delay, asking the Registrar to restore it to the register.
Any change of proprietor, name or address should be recorded against the registration as it happens — an out-of-date register entry can complicate renewal, licensing or enforcement later.
Infringement is the unauthorised commercial use of an identical or deceptively similar mark on the same or related goods and services. India protects both registered marks through statute and unregistered marks through the common-law action of passing off.
Arises from the unauthorised commercial use of a mark identical or deceptively similar to a registered one, on the same or similar goods or services, in a manner likely to cause confusion or suggest a false association with the registered proprietor.
Available even without registration, built on proving goodwill in the mark, a misrepresentation likely to deceive the public, and damage — or likely damage — to that goodwill as a result.
The Madrid Protocol, administered by WIPO, lets an Indian applicant seek trademark protection across its member countries through a single international application, rather than filing separately before each national office.
A Madrid filing needs a corresponding Indian trademark application or registration to build on — the international application cannot cover a broader mark or class scope than this base right.
Filed on Form MM2 through the Indian Trade Marks Registry, acting as the Office of Origin, designating each member country in which protection is wanted and paying the applicable WIPO fees.
WIPO checks the classification and formal requirements, then enters the mark in the International Register and publishes it in the WIPO Gazette of International Marks.
WIPO forwards the application to each designated country's trademark office, which examines it under its own domestic law and within its own statutory timeline, generally within 12 to 18 months.
A designated office may issue a provisional refusal within its statutory period, which is then argued out under that country's local procedure; otherwise, protection is deemed granted there once the period lapses.
The international registration runs for ten years from the date of registration and is renewed in one filing through WIPO covering every designated country, with later changes of ownership, name or address also recorded centrally rather than country by country.
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