Indian Trade Mark Office Notifies Amendment in Trade Mark Rules

Indian Trade Mark Office Notifies Amendment in Trade Mark Rules for making e-filing of Trademark Application and other Trademark Registration documents Mandatory

The Indian Trade Mark office recently notified via gazette notification about amendment in Trade Mark Rules 2002 for making electronic filing of trademark applications and other trademark registration documents mandatory. Once this notification is accepted formally by the Indian govt., it will reduce lot of hassles in the trademark registration process, namely:

• Faster and reliable trademark prosecution and registration proceedings in India
• Lesser chances of corruption and backdoor dealings with trademark officers

However, this will also add additional responsibility on the trade mark office to procure necessary resources to maintain electronic databases related to trademark filings, prosecution and registration proceedings.

Having said that, it is a highly positive development and we expect this to improve the trademark registration procedure in India.

The notification explicitly states that

“The following draft of certain rules further to amend the Trade Marks Rules, 2002, which the Central Government proposes to make in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and sub-Section (2) of Section 1 57 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (47 of 1991, is hereby published, as required by the said subsection (I) of the said Act, for information of all persons likely to be affected thereby; and notice is hereby given that the said draft rules shall be taken into consideration after the expiry of a period of forty five days from the date on which copies of the Gazette of India in which this notification is published, are made available to the public; Any objection or suggestion which may be received from any person with respect to the said draft rules within the period so specified shall be considered by the Central Government; The objections or suggestions may be forwarded to the Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Udyog Bhavan, New Dehi – 110011.”

The main characteristics of this notification are:

1.    Leaving of documents etc.- (1) Any application, notice, statement, opposition, renewal, report, fee, form or other documents authorised or required to be flied, left, served, paid, made or given to the Trade Marks Registry or to the Registrar or to any persons under the Act or these rules, shall be tendered by using online electronic transmission duly authenticated.

2.    The notification also provides that where an applicant or a legal entity who is not a trade marks agent or an advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961, he may use online electronic transmission, if he or it so desires without electronic authentication. However, in such cases, the modified documents shall be required to be filed and shall be duly signed and submitted in paper form also at the appropriate office within 15 days from the date of online submission.

3.    Another important point states that where the applications or other documents have been filed using online system, additional copies of application or documents shall not be filed at the appropriate office” unless directed otherwise by the Registrar.

For any Trademark query feel free to drop in a mail at rd (at) patentbusinesslawyer (dot) com.