Trademark Examination Report India
There are several stages of scrutiny through which every trademark application in India is supposed to pass. Word is that the stage of Examination by the Registry is a sensitively important stage; whereby an officer examines and checks the trademark registration application in India for errors as well as the format and content for confirmation in accordance with the Trademarks Act.
After the review is over, you will receive an issue of the trademark examination report in India containing the comments of the examiner regarding your application. The review will be passed on for publication in the journal in case there are no conflicts of rules. But in case of conflicts , the examiner poses objections and in turn the applicants or attorneys are asked to submit a reply to the objection stating why the concerned application should be passed on to the next stage.
How will you know if there is an objection?
You have to track the status of your Trademark Application and remain updated. At the time of issue of the trademark examination report in India, the status of the application becomes “objected” with an alert of “awaiting reply to examination report”. The importance of trademark objection reply
Why you should Reply to the Trademark Objection?
A Trademark Objection Reply will prevent abandonment of the application – A Trademark Objection Reply is a compulsory step that you have to follow in order to reach to the next stage of the registration process. If you fail to file a reply to the trademark objection report within a period of a month from the date of issue of the concerned report, it will result in the annulment of your entire trademark application.
A Trademark Objection Reply will help you justify and establish a distinctive mark – You can and should always see the objection reply letter as an opportunity for you to objectively present and justify your claims as to why you think you should have your trademark registered. With a well drafted letter, you can put forward and tackle all the arguments to prove why the objections made by the examiner is inapplicable or unrelated to your application.All in all, it will help you establish a distinctive mark for your trademark.
Here’s a list of the most common grounds of Trademark Objection in India:
If the trademark is not unique or distinguished
If the trademark is deceptively similar to another
If the trademark describes the characteristics of the product
If the trademark has a descriptive nature
Online Registration Procedure with Seedup.in – 3 Easy Steps!
Step 1 – Collection of basic information, consultation with our experts regarding the grounds of objection and extensive discussion on the suitable line of response to the trademark examination report in India.
Step 2 – Working with our assigned relationship manager and drafting a suitable response by our experienced lawyers.
Step 3 – Filing the reply to Trademark Objection online.
This entire process takes not more than 4 days.
Please Note: You are not required to stop using the ™ sign as by issuing the trademark Examination Report in India, the Registry doesn’t mean to stop you (the applicant) from using the sign ™ beside your brand’s logo or name.
It is very rare that a show cause notice is issued even after filing a reply to the objection. And it happens usually when either your trademark is dangerously similar to that of another applicant; or the examiner isn’t content with the reply that you’ve filed against the objection.
What happens once the application is published in the Journal?
Once the application has been accepted by the Registry, it gets published in the journal for four months and is open for opposition by any third party during that period. Once the four months are completed without any opposition raised by third party, the Registry issues the Registration Certificate of your Trademark.
