Benefits Of Trademark Registration In India

By P.M.George Kutty

In the Indian Union, trademark (brand name) rights arise through use as a trademark. There is no legal requirement to register a trademark. However, there are multiple benefits to having a trademark registered with the Indian Trade Marks Registry (TMR).

Trademark registration is perhaps the most important piece of a company’s intellectual property protection program. Without trademark registration, a company relies solely upon common law rights in the geographic area in which it uses the trademark. Most significantly, without registration, a latecomer may register a mark identical or similar to the company’s mark. This registration by another user may block the expansion of the company’s use of its trademark in other areas or may block the company’s later attempt to register its trademark.

That’s definitely a hard pill to swallow for the company which could have averted these problems with early registration. If the company had registered it prior to the other user, the TMR would have denied the other’s same or confusingly similar trademark. In addition, the company would always have rights superior to the latecomer, and would not be blocked in its expansion plans.

In addition to the above, trademark registration benefits include:

• Trademark registration provides constructive notice of the registration, and defeats a claim that an infringer did not know that the company’s trademark was registered;

• Trademark registration establishes jurisdiction to file a trademark infringement action at plaintiff’s place of business;

• Trademark registration may be the basis for awarding damages;

• Trademark registration establishes the presumptive right of the trademark owner to use the trademark throughout the country;

• The presumptive right can become incontestable with use of the mark within five years and one month;

• Other companies that conduct a trademark search prior to adopting a trademark would most likely NOT adopt a mark closely the same or similar to the company’s trademark;

• A registration on the Trademarks Register can be the basis for the seizure of counterfeit or infringing merchandise; and

• For those companies that wish to expand internationally, the date of registration may be used as the priority date in other countries, if they are a member of an international treaty, such as the Paris Convention.

P.M.George Kutty, Attorney at Law of http://www.pmgip.com