A trademark is registered under the trademark Registration act 1999. It is registered by the Controller general of patent design and trademarks, Ministry of Commerce and Industry
A trademark is basically a brand or logo or such other form which may include the shape of goods, their packaging, and the combination of colors, which distinguishes the company/organization from the other businesspersons operating in the market.
However in this dynamic world, if your trademark is not registered, you are exposed to the illegal use of your trademark. The owner of trademark registration gets hit by such unauthorized usage in a devastating manner. It leads to the loss of originality, monetary loss and hurts the sentiments of the original business owner and diminishes the reputation, business name, identity, logo, image and brand build after years of dedications.
The trademark registration is granted after crossing certain important stages of objection, rectification, opposition. During the procedure of trademark application, the trademark objection is required to be to be handled with high caution otherwise the trademark registration application can be the rejected. The objections are issued by the trademark examiner on the basis of finding during the examination procedure on certain grounds. To avoid trademark objection the trademark should be inherently distinctive, or would have ‘acquired distinctiveness’ through its usage and should not be similar or identical to third-party mark, otherwise, it is can be objected by the registrar.
In case your trademark application is not objected or you have successfully crossed the trademark objection stage, it will be advertised by the registrar in a trade journal, in such cases, a third party can file an opposition to the trademark registration within four months from the date of advertisement. In case of Trademark opposition raised against your trademark, the online status will appear as “opposed”.
Trademark rectification is another crucial stage, it refers to any kind of alteration, change, modification, or rectification in any registered trademark, by such aggrieved party. Any person aggrieved of such entry in the trademark register can file an application of the trademark rectification. However, in a certain case, the consequences can be cancellation of the trademark registration.
