Trademark Status Objected India online are raised, if any, by the trademark office in the examination report published by the office, on an application for trademark registration. Trademark objections India online are raised in the interest of the proprietor and society at large. There are different types of trademark objections that can be raised and they are as follows,
- Objections relating to formality requirement – Objections can be raised if the applicant fails to comply with the formality rules in filing the application. These objections are raised in order to bring uniformity in the applications filed by the applicants. The basic formality requirements are mentioned as follows,
- Identification of right nature of the application
- Ensuring the appropriate name of the applicant
- Ensuring the submission of the power of attorney
- Ensuring about the applicant’s principal place of business
- Ensuring transliteration and translation of trademark in non-English and non-Hindi characters
- Ensuring Consent of a person or his legal representative, if the trademark contains a name or representative of that person (Section 14 of the Indian Trademarks Act, 1999)
- Ensuring the submission of draft regulations in case of an application for registration of a collective mark
- Ensuring submission of draft regulations in case of an application for registration of a certification mark
- Ensuring submission of priority documents, in case of an application with priority claims
When these formalities are not adhered to, objections are raised by the office. In such situations when trademark status objectedIndia online are raised relating to formality requirements, the applicant should comply with the requirements as desired by the office and submit the reply accordingly.
- Objections based on relative grounds– The relative grounds for raising objection according to Section 11 of the Indian Trademarks Act, 1999, are mentioned below,
- Identical trademark
- Similarity of marks
- Likelihood of confusion
If the examiner finds any of the above-mentioned instances in the trademark registration application, then s/he can raise objections with respect to the registration of such a trademark. In case of objections on relative grounds the applicant may submit that the trademark cited as a conflicting mark in the examination report are not similar. The applicant may also produce consent/ no objection from the proprietor of marks cited as conflicting in the examination report.
- Objections based on absolute grounds – Section 9 of the Indian Trademarks Act, 1999 lays down the grounds for raising objections and refusing trademark registration if the mark in the application is,
- Devoid of distinctive character by being,
- Descriptive
- Qualitative
- Devoid of distinctive character by being,
- Quantitative
- With intended purpose
- Value-based
- With a geographic designwhich may be by using any of the following,
- Geographical names used fancifully
- Names of rivers, seas and deserts etc
- The names of streets and roads
- Names of districts
- Names of suburbs of big cities
- Towns with company names
- A Different approach for service mars consisting of geographical names
- Two or more Indian geographical names combines
- Foreign geographical names
In order to overcome the trademark objections India online raised based on absolute grounds, the applicant may submit a reply stating that the mark has acquired a distinctive character by virtue of its prior use.
- Objections relating to prohibition – Section 13 of the Indian Trademarks Act, 1999 states that if,
- Names of chemical elements or compounds
- International non-proprietary names (declared by the World Health Organization);
Are used in the mark applied for registration, then such marks are subjected to objection. In order to overcome such an objection, the applicant may submit a reply stating the mark in conflict is not in respect of chemical elements or compounds; as such marks are extendable to other goods.
In order to avoid trademark objection India online, the applications can be filed with the help of a law firm and one such leading firm in IP registration is Company Vakil.