Trademark registration in India is a legal designation that guards against intellectual property infringement. It protects your business ideas, goods, or services. This blog provides an ample list of rights granted to registered and unregistered trademark owners.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a form of intellectual property that comprises a consistent symbol, design, or expression that specifies and distinguishes products or services from other sources. Having a trademark registration can be owned by a business or legal entity.
Trademark registration is to:
- To legally guard your brand against fraudsters.
- To establish recognition in the market.
- To distinguish your goods and services from your opponents.
Types of Trademark
Here are all the details about various types of trademarks that you should check out before applying for trademark registration.
Product Mark- A product mark is a trademark used on any product or good rather than on any service. It is to identify the origins of a product and help maintain a business's excellent prominence.
Service Mark- Service mark used on any service rather than a product. It works for all the non-product items. The service mark's main objective is to discriminate against the legal owners of that service.
Collective Mark- Collective Mark is owned by associations and organizations and is to notify people about the best qualities of a service or product used to represent a collaboration.
Certification Mark- A certification mark represents the source of a product, its material, quality, or other specific details that the owner provides. The main objective of this trademark is to allocate benchmarks for any good or product and guarantee the outcome to the consumer.
Shape Mark- A shape mark guards the shape of a specific product or good so that the consumer recognizes that the product is related to a precise work and prefers to buy the product from the place.
Pattern Mark- A Pattern mark shields any specific product's pattern. All the companies make specific pattern-based products with a trademark to protect the pattern of their products so that no other company can impersonate them.
Sound Mark- Any company uses a sound mark to safeguard a particular sound or tune. When a company receives that mark, no other person can use that sound without their permission, and if any still uses them, it is a punishable crime.
Advantages of Trademark Registration
- Legal Right to Use the ® Symbol
- Exclusive Rights
- Low-Cost Protection for 10 Years
- Safeguard Against Infringement
- Asset Creation
- Builds Trust and Loyalty
- Discriminates the Product
Let's discuss the Rights of Trademark Owner, Registered vs. Unregistered Trademark.
Registered Trademark
A "registered trademark" grants the registered owner a bundle of exclusive rights, including the right to exclusive use of the trademark concerning the products or services. Registration of a trademark is not a compulsory requirement in India, and it is valid for 10 years and is subject to renewal.
Benefits of Registered Trademark
Registration gives a monopoly right to the trademark in a particular territory:
- They are an asset to the product.
- It is cost-effective.
- It protects the investment in Advertising & Branding.
- It protects against unfair competition.
Unregistered Trademark
An "unregistered trademark" does not possess legal benefits. Under the Trademark Act, unregistered marks are not specific to goods or services (that is, names, marks, or logos used by a business). In such a case, it is necessary to establish that the unregistered mark has equivalent goodwill or reputation in relation with the product, service, or business.
Rights of an Unregistered Trademark Owner
Under Common Law Rights, an unregistered trademark violation can be prevented. The owner of an unregistered trademark can prevent any third party from using an identical trademark. Such unauthorized use by rivals results in trespassing the product marks. These are the essential factors to bring action against trespassing:
- The trademark owners earned goodwill in the market.
- Affirmation of the Defender's Act.
- The loss suffered by the owner or likely to be sustained by the owner.
Rights of a Registered Trademark Owner
It is optional for your trademark registration. It is an inconvenient process. However, registering it provides more comprehensive rights in comparison with the rights of an unregistered trademark. But once registered, the owner gains some valuable rights. Let us describe them.
The Right to Exclusive Use: The exclusive right to use the trademark register regarding the products and goods for which it enlists under some conditions. If there is more than one owner whose name the trademark is registered with, each of them will have the same rights as other unregistered users.
The Right to Statutory Remedy for Any Infringement: The owner has exclusive rights over the registered trademark. They can seek legal solutions to any violation of their registered trademark as required by law.
Right to Assign: The owner has the right to transfer ownership by way of license. They can provide efficacious permits for such charges.
Right to Register Correction: The owner can apply for correction of the register concerning the registered owner's name, address, or description. He has the right to cancel out any entry of trademark on the record or cross out any class of goods and services from the register.
Conclusion:
Trademark Registration in India enlists under the Trademark Act of 2016. The Act authorizes the trademark owner to sue for any infringement when trademark violations occur. To obtain the rights mentioned above of a registered trademark owner, you should trademark register of your own. Registering a trademark is easy with Lawgical India's online team.
