Trademark registration is very important for businesses as it provides a legal shield to the brand. Trademark protects your brand from your competitors. If a brand owner does not have a trademark registration for their brand, any competitor can use that brand name or logo without the permission of the owner and the owner even cannot claim that. If you have Trademark registration and if someone else uses that logo or mark without your prior permission, you can sue that person before the court of law. Now let's take a glimpse at what is a Trademark. And from which site you can register your trademark.

What is a Trademark?

A Trademark is a specific phrase, word, slogan, logo, or tagline that specifies a particular service and product and a trademark differentiates a brand from its competitors. A trademark completely denotes products or services that belong to a specific brand. It is an intellectual property of a brand. After reading this you might wonder if I want to register my trademark, where I have to go or the process or if it is an online process what is the trademark registration site right?

In this blog, we will briefly discuss the process and all about the trademark registration site.

Let's first discuss the trademark registration site from where you can get your Trademark for your brand.

If an applicant is going for trademark registration, the first information that everyone should know- is that the applicant can file the Trademark Registration application both online and offline. If an applicant is going for an offline procedure, he/she has to submit the form to the concerned trademark registry office. There are only a few trademark registration offices available in the country, the offices are available in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, and Chennai.

If an applicant is going for an online process, he/she can file from anywhere. I would suggest that the applicant should go for the online process as it is cost-effective and the online trademark registration process is fast in comparison to the offline process.  

Now a question can arise in your mind what is the trademark registration Site? 

There is a government website, where you can file your trademark registration application, by yourself the site is https://ipindia.gov.in/ Here you can file your trademark application. There are also many private companies that provide trademark registration through the government. There is an advantage of availing a private organization as they have vastly experienced experts. The experts will guide you throughout the registration process. If you opt for registering on your own, you might face issues as you may feel that the govt. The website bit complex. So, it is always advisable that you should take expert assistance. There is a website named www.onlinelegalindia.com, that provides top-notch trademark registration assistance and guidance. The experts of Online Legal India are vastly experienced and they are one of the top-ranked online legal service providers across the nation. 

Now let’s move on to the process of Trademark Registration:

This question can also strike your mind about what is the process of trademark registration, so let’s start with the process without wasting any further time.

• Trademark Search: The applicant must go through a thorough trademark availability search before filing the trademark application. In this step, the applicant searches for whether the mark they are going to register is available or not. If the mark is not available, the applicant cannot register that specific mark. The mark that is going to be registered should be unique from others and in this step, only the applicant must determine the class in which he/she is going to register their trademark. There are 45 classes available for trademark registration.
• Trademark Application filing: After the completion of the first step, the applicant has to file the Trademark application to the concerned trademark registry. As we discussed earlier applicants can go for both online and offline processes. If you want to go for the offline process, you have to visit the concerned Trademark registry and submit the application. If the applicant goes with the online process then it would be easy for the applicant to file the application.
• Examination by the Registrar: After filing the application, the concerned Trademark registrar will go through the application very minutely and check whether the application is right or not. If everything is okay and if the concerned trademark registration finds everything satisfactory, the application will proceed further to the next step. If the registrar found some issue with your application, the applicant would be called upon for the justification of the issue caused by the registrar.
• Trademark Journal publication: The mark will be published in the trademark journal for third parties. If anyone thinks that your mark is infringing on their intellectual property, they can raise an objection against your mark. In that scenario, the registrar will ask both parties to come and give an explanation of their claims.
• Trademark Registration and Issuance of Certificate: If the registrar thinks that everything is okay, your mark will be registered under the Trademarks Act 1999. After the registration is successful the applicant will get a certificate stating that the mark he/she has applied for has successfully registered. After that, the applicant can start using the “R” mark with their brand which indicates that the brand is registered. 

Conclusion: Last but not least, every company or brand should register their trademark to protect their brand from infringement. If you want to register online, there are trademark registration sites available across the web for both govt. and private. If you find govt. site a bit complex to understand, connect with Online Legal India today to get seamless and hassle-free trademark registration for your brand.