For chronological courtesy, a trademark is fundamentally a badge, figure, letter, word, phrase, mark, tag, label or a symbol that indicates a particular product of a merchant. It is popularly operational at distinguishing a product from all other products of the same kind, both publicly and legally. A trademark is often obtained by a merchant to help consumers exclusively identify a product, or service (service mark) as the property of the merchant solely being offered for public consumption.
Aforesaid in the parenthesis, a service mark is inarguably a trademark equivalent of services, which again have the same use i.e. distinguishing and identifying however the origin of service instead of a product. Though in practice, the term “trademark” is oftentimes utilized to construe both trademarks as well as service marks.
Both trademark and service mark is considered intellectual property. Talking of the terms, the semantics of intellectual property suggests it to be a form of property, characteristically intangible and fundamentally a result of the creativity of the human mind. Examples of intellectual property can range from literary creation to a scientific invention, an artistic work to a model/design, even name or symbol used in a legitimate business. The idea behind the intellectual property is to enable the creator reap financial benefit from its creation. And the most important feature of intellectual property is that it is protected by law.
Hence, going back to where it all started, trademarks are a very crucial part of a flourishing business to establish its distinct presence and gain popularity. There are several laws and regulatory bodies in the lands of the world governing the use of trademarks. Any instance of infringement of rights under the Trademark Act, 1999 can attract legal liability.
Why Trademark Search Is Even Bothered About?
Before we embark on the journey of deciphering how to do an impeccable Trademark search, we must commence it with the question of why a trademark search is important.
Well, using a trademark in your business, it is necessary that you undertake a trademark search to check if the trademark you are zeroing in on is not already taken. The reason not just being the confusion and ruckus it might create among the consumers, and eventually hampering your brand’s growth. Neither might you just put yourself in a position to face legal action for an act of ‘infringement’. If you do not choose a unique name and graphical properties for your business, possibilities are quite high that you might never get past the registration process. YES, YOU HEARD IT RIGHT!
How to search trademark in India
Performing a trademark check is quite an easy task and can be undertaken by simply the following steps listed below. Let us save the complex work for the later sections.
- Visit the official website of trademark search at https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx managed by Controller General of Patents Design & Trade Marks, under the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
- On the top of the page, select Wordmark as the Search Type.
- Fill in the wordmark (a text-only trademark) you are required to do a search for in the registered database. The search in trademark database can be made in three types, i.e. “start with”, “contains” or “match with”.
- Selecting “Start with” would gather results all the entries in the trademark search database that begins with the values filled in the search field.
- Choosing “contains” would fetch results that contains the values filled for search.
- “Match” would display all names in the trademark search database that meets with the value submitted in the search.
- In this step, the class of the trademark (whichever is applicable) needs to be chosen. Trademarks are classified under 45 categories (or, classes) with each class representing a distinguishable group of goods or services. A registered trademark or trademark application will only be relevant to the class subject to which it was applied for.
- Hit the search button to start the trademark search.
And that is the end of a new beginning, of a quest that entails a lot more effort than just doing a search on names directly. Anyone can search trademarks for free using the Electronic Search System called Public Search of Trade Marks. The matters get a little complex when your application for registration of trademark gets rejected, for instance, because you did not check other possible spellings of a word. Other instances for rejection of trademark registration can be some problem in the terms used. This is the point when you actually require some help to get through the search process.
Therefore, what to keep an eye for during a trademark search?
The aim of trademark search is to unveil trademarks that are analogous to yours and employed in associated goods or services. Trademarks can be alike without being exactly identical. For instance, names may be said to be similar if they appear or sound alike. The most popular example is the “T.Markey” and “Tee Marquee” one, that quite sufficiently explains the catch. This is why it is important to search for alternate spellings of the same word on top of exact matches.
Classes
Now, this is the part where a discussion is required on various classes of the trademark in India. There are a total of 45 trademark classes that are defined and recognized by the Government of India under the Fourth Schedule To Trade Marks Rules, 2002, for the seamless administration of intellectual property. The first 34 classes are concerned with products, whereas the rest of classes i.e. from class 35 to class 45 pertain to services only. For easy reference, all the official links, including the link of the official list of trademark classes has been given at the end of the article.
To unveil the importance of classes, it is common enough to possess identical trademarks registered given the goods or services are irrelevant and unrelated to each other, for instance, “Apple computers” can loosely fall under Class 9, Class 38, and Class 42 whereas “Apple irrigation and fitting products” can fall under Class 6, Class 7 and Class 19. At such an event, when the Class of your product is different from the Class of the identical trademark, it is possible to get past the registration process.
However, there are still a number of things that must be kept in mind before deciding a trademark for your brand of product(s).
Use of general terms: Terms that are usually attached to the end of company names, for instance, ‘manufacturing unit’ are at a risk of being rejected.
Use of offensive words/marks targeting any community: Trademarks manifesting any form of offensive implication towards a religion, or caste, or for that matter, any other specific community is prone to face rejection. On the other hand, slangs, slurs or any form of obscene terms can incur disqualification.
Confusing or misleading connection: The trademark being registered should be unique and originative enough. Trademarks must also be well researched. Most importantly, it must not refer to any entity responsible for fraud, scam or other criminal activity. Trademarks failing to adhere may get rejected.
The point is, keep the trademark as clean and creative as possible. Try not to convey any form of message that can promote confusion, hatred or unrest.
Conclusions
The story has been pretty much told. If you are looking to register a trademark, which is one of the most crucial step in building a brand in the entirely revolutionized post modern business environment, make sure you follow all the instructions laid out in the article. It is also recommended that you undertake a research on trademark formation, trademark search for existing trademarks to avoid clashes, and trademark classes which are again very important to get you through the process successfully.
Important links:
For official trademark search, please go to: https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx#
For accessing the list of Trademark Classes, please go to: https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/classfication_goods_service.htm
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