IP India is dedicated to providing intellectual property registration services. Among all other intellectual properties, trademark registration is one. A trademark is the sign or symbol of a business through which an entrepreneur can popularize the brand uniquely to their target audience. This intellectual property registration helps grow any business by creating credibility in the minds of customers. You can follow the ipindia trademark registration process so that you can deal with the customers proudly as yours is a registered brand, you maintain the quality of products, and you are not imitating any other brands in India.

What is a trademark?

A trademark is a mark that a business person uses to identify the business, and it is not of others. You can select a unique name, word style, symbol, or design as your brand trademark. 

But, everybody can imitate it. If the competitors imitate your brand name or brand trademark, you will never be successful in your business. You may be penalized for the reason of others who have imitated yours. You might be penalized for no fault of yours. How pathetic it is! Yes, a lot of things may happen to you. Here comes the necessity of trademark registration.  

What is IPIndia Trademark Registration?

Whatever you have taken as your brand’s unique identity can be registered through the ipindia trademark registration process. Then, nobody can copy or imitate it. If they do, you can take legal action against them. 

Trademark registration is the way to register your logo, symbol, sign, wordmark, design mark, emblem, slogan, etc. that identifies your unique brand. To register it, you have to file an application online through the ipindia portal, a government site for registering your unique trademark, and use a ® sign with it. 

This increases the authenticity of your brand, and nobody will get the audacity to copy your registered trademark to sell low-quality products by showing your brand. Once noticed and caught, you can get 3 times back the business loss or as per the rules of the Government of India. You can generate a Trademark for goods or services. You may have noticed the brand name of Colgate, there is a small circled R at its right corner. This way, any company can register their unique trademark and get protection from infringers.  

Importance of Registering a Trademark 

A registered Trademark gives a goods business or service providing companies an authenticity that they are unique and nobody can copy it or infringe the product with the same logo a manufacturer produces. Here are some benefits that you may avail of after ipindia trademark registration. 

12 Benefits of IPindia Trademark Registration:

Ipindia trademark registration portal is India’s government site for trademark registration. Everybody can apply by following the right steps. Here are the benefits of your trademark registration: Let’s learn them. 

1. You will get intellectual property right

A trademark is an intellectual property and it will remain with you for life until you want to cancel or stop continuing it. It gives your brand a clear authentication on brand or logo utilization, and nobody can copy it. Once they try to copy and it comes to your knowledge, you can take legal action against the person, company, or any product manufacturing unit. If you are right in your allegation, you will win the case and will get the compensation or whatever decision the court makes. 

The rights of a registered trademark owner are mentioned under the Trademark Act, section 18. Thus, you can protect your brand identity from unauthorized use, and potential infringement. Ipindia trademark registration gives you authority.

2. Rights to control using the trademark

Under the Trademark Act Section 28, the right ensures that no other entity can use any identical or almost similar trademark for their business that deals with a similar product or different products. The section empowers the trademark owner to take legal action against the person or company involved in the infringement. So, this increases the brand value and secured position in the market.

3. Registered Trademark Helps take action on infringement

The owner of a registered Trademark registration gets empowerment against infringement under Section 29 of Trademark Registration Act 1999. This act prohibits the infringement of any product by using your trademark. If it happens, you can continue the legal proceedings. Any mental agony, injustice, damages, business loss, and many other consequences may happen to you. You can ask for compensation for the loss ensuring the trademark’s distinctiveness and integrity. 

4. Prevent objectionable use of your trademark

Unlike common legal protection, an Indian trademark prevents consumer confusion as they can choose the product of a specific brand. When your company is growing through reputation, some unfair business person can copy the product and supply them by your name. It is an objectionable use of trademark. Hence, you will be protected from the government of India. Hence, the trademark will offer you a more comprehensive shield against unauthorized use.

5. Legal validation of your business trademark

Once you trademark your company, you will get legal validation of the mark. It is valid for 10 years once you register. However, you can renew it to extend its validity as long as you want. Hence, you have to renew it before the expiration. Then, you will get the next validity of 10 years. This may be continued for ears even after your expiration.

6. Win reliability 

When you have a ® logo beside your brand, everybody will form a conception that your company is one of the best companies. The trademark is registered means that the company wants to maintain quality and grow the business. So, they do not want to create a duplicate brand with others. This increases the credibility of the company’s service or sold goods. In this way, every new company comes to light, becomes popular, and then they compete with the big brands.

7. Compete with the big brands

It is a big deal to deal with such a large company. They may have continued the business for a long time in the area where you have started your business promotion. Don’t worry! If you have a registered trademark, and your product quality is trustworthy, you will surely succeed in beating the well-established company. Your business success depends on product quality or service quality and brand reliability. The Ipindia trademark provides you with the reliability of the company you run. Everybody can expect that a new company will charge a lower price for their service or products compared to the big and reputed brands. When you charge less for the best quality products, you will surely get more responses from customers who are with well-established brands. So, your business possibility will increase a lot. 

8. Legal Recognition from the Government of India 

When you have received a trademark registration certificate, you have become the owner of the mark, and nobody can grab it or use it unless your permission. Only the branch offices or brace of the product sales, franchises, etc. can use the trademark that you have registered. The person who has registered the mark is the owner of it and the process enforces the trademark right. The proprietor can protect the mark by informing others that it is registered by showing a symbol of ® with the mark. This protects brand infringement and faking of products or services.

9. Complete IPR from the trademark authority 

Having a registered trademark means that you have the complete right to your trademark as per the rules of IPR. So, gaining authenticity on your company’s brand and getting legal protection from the Government of India matters most. So, when you try the ipindia trademark, you will be able to get complete protection by the Indian Trademark Act.

10. Possibility of multiple businesses from a single origin 

Everybody wants to grow in the world. Every business also wants to grow. So, any entrepreneur may have the desire to run multiple businesses after getting success in one. Then, they can register under collective marks for their multiple businesses and multiple classes of business (Sections 61 to 68). 

11. It is your intellectual asset 

Registering anything under your name means that it is your property and you can use it for life or a specific period. Yes, a registered trademark is an intellectual property that gives you passive benefits and protection of your business identity and increases credibility among the customers. If you become reputed with any trademarked brand, remember that, a great part of business progress comes from the support of intellectual property. However, you have to renew it in every 10 years before the day of expiration. 

12. International trademark registration 

Sections 154 & 155 of the Trademark Act 1999 have given you the authority to protect your brand internationally. This act enables you to create a trademark and register it internationally. You may have the idea of registering the trademark, AMAZON. It is such a brand that dominates across the world, but nobody has the right to start any business with the same trademark. You can register an international trademark through the ipindia trademark registration portal and by visiting the WIPO section. WIPO stands for World Intellectual Property Organization. You can do it from your end if you know all the processes and procedures.

The main concern for all entrepreneurs is the process of registering the trademark. Some people find an assisting company that processes your request with the required documents. Let’s learn the process step by step.

Steps to register IP India trademark:

A business owner has to follow some critical steps to file a trademark. They are as follows:

Preparing a brand trademark 

You have to prepare a brand trademark that you consider unique from all perspectives. You have to keep in mind that unless it is a unique one, you will not be able to get it registered from the India trademark registration portal. All the Indian and international trademark databases are available there. However, the process of international trademarking is a bit different and has to follow some different procedures. At the very beginning, you have to prepare your brand logo, icon, symbol, sign, work mark, etc. as a brand trademark that will represent your brand. 

Trademark public search

It is mandatory to search for your trademark on the IP India site. The link to the site where you can search trademarks publicly is https://tmrsearch.ipindia.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch. You can follow the steps. At the very beginning, you will see the selection of WORDMARK, VIENNA CODE, and PHONETIC search. Select the type of mark you have created. According to the mark you have selected, you will get to select START WITH, and a space black to write the wordmark, then select the class (see the left menu of the site to get class details). Now, enter the captcha code and select search. You will get the search result as to whether there is any similarity of the mark in the database of the IP India site. If yours is unique, you can submit your application for trademark registration. You can learn the details of IP India public search here.

What if you do not go for a trademark public search? You may proceed on without going through a trademark public search but it will be a risky affair. If any duplicity of the trademark is found, the trademark register will disqualify your application and reject it. On the other hand, your trademark may also face opposition from another trademark owner who has a similar mark registered or applied before. So, to avoid it, you can go for a trademark public search.

Filing a Trademark Application Online 

If you are confident that the trademark search does not find any match with your trademark, you can proceed to apply to your end. Anybody can apply for trademark registration if they are accustomed to proceeding with filing without any fault. You know a faulty application may lead to rejection of registration. If you do not have enough time at hand or you are not accustomed to doing all these things, you can hire special service providers that dedicatedly file your trademark without any flaws. 

Usually, you have to fill out the form TM-A through an online or offline process. The offline process requires an extra charge and maybe a delayed process. However, the online application gives you faster acceptance and application reference numbers (ARN). Besides, online applications are cost-effective. If you want you can physically (offline) apply for it by visiting the Trademark Registry Office available in your jurisdiction.

Paying of fees

The application has to be submitted as the online procedure guides you for a single class multiple classes or a series of classes. The fees must be paid by the application type. If you proceed with the online application, the fees will be visible on the page. To apply online, you have to pay 4500/- for each class and each mark. The offline fee for it is 5,000. In all other cases, the fees would be 9,000 for e-filing and 10,000 for offline filing. 

If the mark is already in use by the same authority but was unregistered, the applicant has to submit an affidavit mentioning that you used to use the mark before the application for your business.

Examination process by the register

After the submission of the application, your application will be thoroughly examined. Within 30 days, they will send a copy of it and will inform you whether the register wants to refuse, accept, or conditionally accept your application for trademark registration. The register will also send the documents if they want to reject or conditionally accept the application, and why they have taken the decision. 

Reply to the letter from the register

If the register raises any concern against your application, you have to reply to it within 30 days of receiving the letter. The trademark applicant has to show cause or have to modify the mark and proceed to the registration process. If the application fails to reply within the stipulated time, the application will be rejected. 

If everything is alright, the register proceeds on the further process of registration. Apart from the ipindia trademark database, someone may consider that the trademark applied is similar to theirs. So, they have to proceed with another process for justification. What is it?

Trademark Journal Publication

This time, the register publishes it in the Trademark Journal to show the trademark to everybody. The previously trademarked companies or applied business people can notice the journal. If they find that there is any similarity with their trademark, they can file an objection within 4 months of the publication in the Trademark Journal.

Opposition Handing 

Any trademark owner or any common people can oppose to use of any previously used and active trademark, almost similar look or similar slogan, etc. They can file the opposition through Form TM-O (online or offline). 

When the applicant receives the opposition notice, they have to reply in 30 days. Both parties have to show cause for opposition or why they have taken the mark when the mark is available. If the opposition is overruled, you will get the trademark registered. Otherwise, you have to reapply for a new trademark registration following the same process.

Checking the status

You can also check the status of your trademark application after submitting the form. As soon as you apply online, you will get an ARN. This number is vital to remember. Through the ARN, you can check the status of the application. According to the status of the application, you can take the steps. To check status, click here. If you notice that your application is approved, you will get it soon.

Trademark Registration certificate download 

When everything goes well, you will get a trademark registration certificate. Here is the process for downloading the trademark certificate.

• Visit the ipindia trademark site and find the option to download. Besides, visit (https://tmrsearch.ipindia.gov.in/eregister/). 
• Click on the first option in the left side corner
• Mark the first option where “National/IRDI Number” is written.
• Then, put the application reference number or ARN
• Then, you will get your registration number and your name.
• At the upper right corner of the site, you will get a View Registration Certificate.
• On clicking it, you can view it with your name and brand name. 
• This is a PDF view of your certificate 
• At the right corner, you will get a download symbol, Click on it to download
• Now you can use it. 
• Print it to keep a hard copy of it. 

Validity of trademark certificate

The validity of a trademark certificate remains valid for 10 years but you can renew it by applying through IP India.

In this way, you can apply through the ipindia trademark website. You may not get time, or may not be easy with the online and computerized systems. If the situation goes likewise, you can contact Online Legal India, the best legal service-providing company in India. We can file your trademark registration online flawlessly. What are you waiting for? Contact us now.