Last week I met a friend who was extremely disturbed with the fact that he registered his brand in different classification of trademark. He also mentioned that he was working for last five years & was not aware of anything related to brand registration. He realized this fact when he saw others using his brand which he has put in his heart & soul in for five years.
We all would know or have heard numerous stories of these issues in our daily course of life. There is also another side of the coin in which we are sometimes little lazy or careless in not treating a brand as an asset. This leads to losing not only rights on your brands but also can make you go out of business.
Now the following question arises;
- Is trademark really necessary? Why?
- What will happen if we do not register our brand?
- How to register a brand trademark
- When to register?
- Where to register it from?
Contents
1. What is Trademark
A trade mark is a unique sign which helps you to distinguish your business goods or services from others.Your brand are represented by a trademark and it is of two types:
A. In form of a logo
B. In form of a Signature
Through a registered trade mark, you can protect your brand (or “mark”) by preventing others from using your brand.
2. Who can Register Trademark?
Any person claiming to be the proprietor of a trade mark used or proposed to be used by him may apply in writing in prescribed manner for registration. The application should contain the trade mark, the goods/services, name and address of applicant and agent (if any) with power of attorney, period of use of the mark and signature.
The application should be in English or Hindi. It should be filed at the appropriate office from the state in which his company is registered.
3. When to Register Trademark?
Every Trademark should be registered as soon as possible. Primary reason would be once you have done all the hard to build a brand/ trademark & someone else would just copy. All of your hard work &resources put in to setup the brand will go down the drain.
4. Where to Register a Trademark?
5. How to Register your Trademark?
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What Problems are faced during Trademark registration?
- Many Startups are not aware of the class in which they are doing business and when they file the application, they make the biggest mistake by entering the wrong details in the application form.
- After filing the application they can use ™ which means that the trademark is under registration process and will be registered if all the further steps moves smoothly. Many of them just consider ™ as their final process and drops out in between just by using ™ and when they come to know that their business class is used by other with ® mark they regret for not knowing the whole process.
- After the Examination report, the designed Trademark is either selected or objected which might be due to wrong/incomplete information or explanation.
- If the Objection is replied with accurate explanation then the Trademark will be selected and will be given with a ® certificate but if it is not accurate then it will get objection again and you have to reply with the same again.
Conclusion
Registering your brand is not a difficult process. Getting the right knowledge leads you towards successful registration for your brand. After all points explained above figure out what you lacking behind and get ® mark on your business.
About the Author: Lokesh Sharma is works with QuickCompany.in a, leading website to register a Trademark in India
My doubt is how a online company, say for example, online job search website, classifieds, ecommerce and other b2b or b2c service based online company can register a company or trademark?
Hello Dev, all these job search websites, e-commerce sites must be working under some sort of business model say Company or LLP and Company is the most acceptable and recognised form of doing business. Because running business over website must be owned by any “business model/entity”.
And for protecting your brand name from using by other person, you have to register a trademark of your brand name. Registering a brand name is not mandatory but recommendatory.
For Example: http://www.naukari.com is a job portal but this e-commerce portal is owned by “Info Edge India Ltd”. You can find this info by scrolling down the webpage of the site.
Therefore, we would like to conclude that even B2B and B2C service based online company can register their company and trademark too.
Dear i need to know that where to check the follow up of registred trade mark “wordName” on web.
aso that we can trace the progress and ack acccordingly
There are 45 categories to register a trademark. Also there are some categories to register a company. Now my doubt is how a online company, say for example, online job search website, classifieds, ecommerce and other b2b or b2c service based online company can register a company or trademark?
Hi Azal,
Registering a Company and trademark both are two different things.
For doing a business, you first have to choose a form of doing business. There are various ways of doing business in India:
1. Company;
2. Partnership Firm;
3. Limited Liability Partnership Firm (LLP);
4. Sole Proprietorship concern; etc
Out of above mentioned models, company is the most recognised and acceptable form of doing business in India. If you register a company with e-commerce object, you can do an online business by any other domain name because domain name and company name can differ because people normally choose some catchy domain names in order to attract potential customers. Once we start an online business, such website is owned by some business entity and such entity is normally a Company. And for protecting a brand name, we should register it as Trademark.
For further details, you can contact at +91-7503972094