Registration of trademark

A Trademark generally refers to a “brand” or “logo”. Trademark registration can also be obtained for a business name, distinctive catch phrases, taglines or captions. Properly used and promoted, a Trademark may become the most valuable asset of a business. It is also essential to obtain trademark registration for the business name/trade name under the Trademarks Act. Registration of a company or business name under the Companies Act or with any Regulator does not in itself give protection against others who might commence using identical or similar marks.

An application for a trademark in India have to be filed before the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who heads the TRADE MARKS Registry offices and functions as the Registrar of TRADE MARKS. The Head Office of the Trade Marks Registry is at Mumbai and branch offices are at Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata.An application for registration of trademarks is to be submitted at the Head office or a branch office of the Trade Marks Registry within whose territorial limits the Principal place of the business of the applicant is situated. The duration of an India trademark registration is 10 years from the date of registration and can be renewed for periods of 10 years

'TM' stands for Trademark and 'SM' stands for Servicemark. The use of TM and SM symbols notifies the public that the owner is claiming exclusive ownership of the trademark and can generally be used by one who has filed a trademark application. The ® symbol, can be used only once the trademark is registered and the registration certificate is issued. Also, the registration symbol can be used only in connection with the goods and/or services in respect of which the trademark is registered.