Trademark Assignment India

Trademark is a symbol, word, logo or a design which ensures that the distinctiveness of one design from another is maintained and is an exclusive property of the one who has registered it as their own. The owner of the trademark has a right to sell, license, franchise or transfer their ownership of the concerned trademark to another person as well. This kind of a transfer can be made through the Trademark Assignment Agreement in India or through Licensing.

There is a change in the ownership of the registered brand at the new assignment of its trademark in India. However, in case of Licensing, the rights of the trademark continue to vest upon the original owner. Although the third party has a bunch of restricted rights on the trademark. The assignment of the trademark can be done with or without transferring the business goodwill. In case of a registered Trademark, such an assignment is supposed to be recorded in the Register of trademarks.

Advantages of Assignment of Trademark in India

• You can get your Trademark’s value with assignment – An unspeakable amount of hard work, time and money goes into branding and with the assignment of a trademark in India, the owner of the trademark can encash on the value of the brand they’ve worked so hard to create. It has been seen that combined efforts of the assignee and the assignor creates more value of the brand.
• The Assignee of the trademark gets a pre established brand – With Trademark Assignment, the assignee gets to have a pre established trademark that people already recognize and can skip through the initial hard work required to create a brand’s trademark.
• The Trademark Assignment Agreement in India serves as a valid proof – In case there is a conflict arising regarding the trademark and the rights associated with it, the Trademark Assignment Agreement in India is a valid alibi. The Registry makes sure everything is in place by examining all the clauses mentioned in the agreement and by publishing it in the trademarks journal.
• Trademark Assignment is the first step in expansion of business – The trademark assignment or licensing can ensure that the business keeps increasing and expanding with combined efforts as more people get on board and work towards building on the brand or enhancing it.

Types of trademark assignment in India

There are four types of Trademark Assignment in India:

• Complete Assignment – In this type of assignment, all the rights of the trademark are assigned to the third party. This includes the rights to further transfer, license, earn royalties, etc.
• Assignment limited to some goods or services- In this type of assignment, the transfer of ownership gets restricted only to a few products or services. The clauses regarding the same are mentioned in the Trademark assignment Agreement.
• Assignment with Goodwill – Here, the rights and the value that is attached to the trademark also get transferred. This means that the new owner or assignee of the trademark is eligible to use the concerned brand name and logo w.r.t goods and services that have already been sold under the brand’s name. And additionally, the new owner has the right to use the trademark for any new product or service the new owner starts.
• Gross Assignment – In this type of assignment, the rights of the trademark assignee gets restricted as per the wishes of the owner. The limited user rights prohibits the assignee from using the trademark for products created by the assignor. This type of assignment is also called assignment without goodwill.

Restrictions on the Registered Trademark Assignment in India

• There are restrictions on trademark assignments in India that create exclusive rights for more than one person w.r.t to the same products and services.
• There are restrictions on the simultaneous use of the assigned trademarks by different people in different parts of the country.

List of documents required for Trademark Assignment in India

• Certificate of Trademark Registration in India (in case you have one)
• Name and other details of the Assignor and the Assignee
• A No Objection Certificate from the original owner of the Trademark

Procedure for Trademark Assignment in India with Seedup.in

• Fill the questionnaire and submit documents – The first step requires you to fill a questionnaire providing basic information and then laying down the terms and conditions for the assignment and also decide the type of assignment. And then you have to submit the required documents.
• Drafting and Filing – After proper consultation, the next step is the drafting of the assignment agreement and then finally the filing of the Trademark assignment agreement which is done by the professionals at seedup.in.
• Submission – Once the TM-P application gets submitted, your work is done and you have to wait for 6-8 months for the Trademark Registry to update the data of transfer.

This entire process of filing the Trademark Assignment Agreement in India with Seedup.in takes about 7-8 working days.