Trademark Registration recognises your right on your brand. Trademark Registration protects your business from dilution and gives you unique identity amongst other competitor.
Once consumer starts identifying your goods/ services to be of high quality, value of your trademark grows manifold and enable you to charge premium amount for your high quality goods/ services and gives opportunities to license out the brand through franchise.
Trademark registration in reality gives confidence to consumer that your goods originate from you and that you are not selling others’ goods under any infringed trademark. However, once you invest your resources in brand building and as your brand gathers reputation, it attracts attention of infringers and free riders, and also in some cases attracts false threat of infringements and legal proceedings. Thus it is always advisable to get your trademark registered at the earliest opportunity whether you are already using it or intends to use in near future.
Before adopting any trademark, you must be under guidance of Trademark Lawyer and run trademark search to check whether the mark you finalised is available for adoption, many a times exactly similar words/ marks may not be available but presence of certain other crucial marks may be enough to pose danger for your marks, so consult with your trademark attorney carefully and diligently.
If your word is free for adoption, then identify what all goods or services you want to register under the mark keeping your business interest in mind, and go for filing trademark application. Government fees vary for individual filing and for corporate filing. Post filing of trademark application you immediately gets your Trademark Application number.
Your Trademark application is scrutinised by Trademark Registry. Post scrutiny, Trademark Registry may or may not raise objection to the adoption. If no objection is raised, then your mark proceeds for publication. If your mark is objected by Trademark Registry, then your trademark attorney will address each and every objection and attempt to convince Ld. Registrar. At this stage, hearings may be called by Ld. Registrar seeking clarification. If objection is waived by the Ld. Registrar, the mark proceeds for publication.
After publication, there is 4 month time available for third party to oppose the mark, and if no opposition is received then Trademark is registered and Certificate is issued.
If anyone opposes the adoption, the opposition proceedings follows, and parties have to file evidences, submission to fight out their respective right.
A note of caution is that you have to keep using your mark with respect to the registered goods services, and in case you do not use continuously for 5 years, then your registration might get cancelled if anyone file rectification.