Trademark Registration in India- An Overview

Your business gets the exclusive power to use a particular symbol or words that provide you with a unique identity through trademark registration. So a registered trademark helps in the representation of your business or product or service in a unique way that helps it stand out from the rest of your competitors. The trademark you get after completion of the registration process is considered as your business’s intangible asset or intellectual property and so no other organization can use it as long as it remains in use.

And If anyhow others use your registered trademark without contracting for the same legally then you can sue them for copying and using your trademark. And that’s how you are able to protect your brand name from unscrupulous practices. More than anything else the trademark registration helps you protect the trust and loyalty that your customers have towards your brand or business. 

Once you have applied for a trademark registration you can use the “™” symbol until your registration completes, which takes a minimum of 1.5-2 years in India. After successful registration, you can use the “R” symbol which will be valid for 10 years and after which have to renew it. As the process of trademark registration is a lengthy one with several steps that requires regular follow-ups, thus we recommend you to take an expert’s help.

Over the years thousands of applicants across India chose to receive our help for their trademark registration. And we are happy to say that they were successful in getting it done with our active help.

Benefits of getting trademark registration in India

Trademark registration is a necessary requirement to businesses for very important reasons such as

• A registered trademark helps in building trust, quality, safety and goodwill in the mind of customers. Also helps customers in differentiating products apart from giving your brand, product or service a unique identity.

• It gives you legal protection, infringement protection and hence preventing unauthorized usage of your brand’s identity by any third person without permission.

• By registering your trademark you get an exclusive right over the trademark that makes it an intangible asset that can be traded, distributed, franchised or even commercially contracted.

• The registration gives you permission for global filling of the trademark.

• A registered trademark helps promote goods and services by constituting the face of your brand that ultimately helps in protecting commercial goodwill.

Who is eligible for trademark registration in India?

Every business, entity, individual or non-profit organization have the right to protect their unique brand, slogan or words that distinguish themselves from others. Hence all of them can apply for trademark registration in India with each class of persons or entity having different requirements to fill up in the trademark application.

Following are classes of persons or entities who are eligible for trademark registration:

• As an Individual: a symbol or word proposed by a person or individual can be registered as a trademark.

• As a Proprietorship farm: can apply by mentioning the name of the applicant.

• As Joint owner: Need to mention the names of both people in the application.

• Limited liability partnership: Here the name of the LLP is to be mentioned and not of the partners.

• Partnership firm: Names of all the partners are needed.

• Indian company: The name of the company is to be mentioned in the registration form.

• Trust society or Non-profit organization: The chairman or secretary or the managing trustee’s name is required.

• A foreign company: Application should be made under the corporate’s name as registered under the foreign country.

What can be registered as a trademark?

You can choose to register any aspect of your brand as a trademark. Out of the multiple aspects of your brand, you must choose the one that helps your brand stand out to your customer. You can use any name, logo/symbol, tagline or other thighs associated with your brand for trademarking.

If you are considering a name for trademarking then you have different name options to choose from. Like-

business or company’s name: It’s the most common practice among business owners. For ex- Infosys

Product Name: A company’s particular product name can also be trademarked.

Abbreviations: A company or brand’s name used in abbreviations can be registered as a trademark although it’s generally hard to get one. For ex-BMW

A person’s Surname or Name: If your name has a huge impact on your brand then you can trademark even your name. For example- famous chef, Sanjeev Kapoor has trademarked his name. 

If it’s a tagline you want to trademark because that tagline tells your customers what you stand for then go for it and trademark it. A good example of a trademarked tagline is Amul’s “The taste of India”

You may have heard that your customers can remember the logo of your brand more than its name. And that’s why you should focus on trademarking your logo which is easily memorable in connection with the products or services of your business. For example- McDonald’s M

You can even trademark a colour(or combination of colour), musical notes( or sounds) and even scents.

Just pick one or two of its kind and inform us all about it, our experts will conduct searches in the trademark database and will let you know about the availability of it.

Types of trademark registration in India

In India, there are various types of trademark registration and the purpose of most kinds of trademarks is to enable consumers to identify the goods or services with their actual manufacturer or service provider.

Though the certification mark is not used for identifying but for ensuring the quality of certain products.

Here is the list of different trademark registration happening in India-

• Service Mark

• Product Mark

• Collective Mark

• Shape Mark

• Pattern Mark

• Sound Mark

• Certification Mark

Be it any kind of trademark, we are here to help you with every kind of trademark registration.

Document required for trademark registration

We have already mentioned that you will be needing expert guidance while applying for trademark registration for the sheer complexity and length of the process. And as we have helped thousands of applicants get their registration filled, so we exactly know what documents and information are required for the whole process.

Below we have clearly mentioned the information and documents we need you to provide us-

Information required:

• Applicant’s name
• Business type
• Business objective
• Address of registration
• Logo/brand/tagline name

Documents required:

• PAN card, Adhar Card and Passport of the trademark owner
• Certificate of Incorporation( needed in case of an LLP or Private Limited Company)
• Udyog Aadhar registration/MSME registration certificate( optional)
• Business proof( in some type of business)
• Signed From- 48

Procedure for Trademark Registration

Although it may appear that the process of trademark registration is simple enough but in reality, it is not so. Why? Because it not only involves some number of processes but also government follow-ups for a span of 1.5- 2 years. And if between the process some trademark objection or opposition happens either from the examiner or a third party then the overall time required for registration takes more than 2 years.

But you don’t have to worry about the complicated process as we have broken down the whole process into different parts and taken the responsibility to do the majority of work for you for the whole time span.

So here are the steps we will be following-

Step 01: Searching the Trademark

In this first step, our experts will perform thorough research to check whether the mark you want to register is available or not. This search will be based on the information you have given us where you mentioned the thing you want to trademark and the industry in which your business going to operate.

After you choose the available trademark we will move to the next step

Step 02: Selecting the class and collecting the documents

All goods and services are categorised across total of 45 classes in India and you have to choose the class appropriate for your business. It may seem an overwhelming task but you don’t need to worry as our experts will guide you in selecting the right classes that will cover every aspect of your business.

Other than selecting a class you will be required to upload all the required documents for trademark registration in our portal. These documents will be needed for the next step.

Step 03: Filling the Trademark Application

In this step, we will fill up the trademark application along with submitting all the necessary documents on your behalf after verifying all your uploaded documents on our site.

Hereafter throughout the process until the completion of registration, we will keep you updated and will forward any notification from the government. After accurate and error-free submission of the application, you will get a trademark number and from now onwards you can use the Trademark Symbol “™”.

Until the trademark is filed in the govt. Registry if there come instances of giving responses in connection with trademark objection or trademark opposition then we will be there to assist you in crafting the right responses to the trademark examiner.