Key To

Success

TRADEMARK

ABOUT US

Kashyap & Kashyap brings both global expertise and homegrown experience to handle even the toughest of cases.

We are a boutique law firm

specializing in Intellectual Property, Media Law, Immigration

Law, Medical Law, Commercial Law & Alternative Dispute Resolution. Our

attorneys provide the complete ambit of services in each of our specialties – from counselling, to

negotiation, drafting, and even litigation.

Kashyap & Kashyap works to provide

a bridge between both the US and India. Our attorneys are licensed in

the state of New York as well as the courts of India, and handle legal

matters involving both jurisdictions.

CONTACT US

Suite 305, ABW Tower IFFCO Chowk, M G Road

Gurugram, Haryana 122001

Phone +91-9910018899 +91-9599077122

info@kashyapandkashyap.com kashyapandkashyap.com

Whether you’re an individual, start-up or multinational, if you own a business, you want your business to thrive. Key to your success is the establishment of a brand and maintaining its value. To represent and identify your brand to the market, you must use a name, phrase, symbol, colors, or a combination there of. This is your trademark. Your trademark identifies your goods and services in the market – distinguishing you from your competitors and imitators – allowing you to build recognition and a reputation of your own. But the more valuable your make your brand, the more unscrupulous parties will attempt to hijack your customer’s goodwill by stealing your trademark and using it for their cheap knockoffs. This not only allows them to profit off of your hard work, it also dilutes the value of your band by associating it with inferior products. This is sort of double-loss is a situation to be avoided at all costs. Fortunately, the law provides the perfect mechanism to protect your trademark: registration. Registration of a trademark protects your trademark. Whether its your business name, identity, brand, logo, image – a registered trademark can protect everything that marks a product your work, and impose stiff legal penalties on imitators and forgeries. Any individual, start-up, small enterprise or other companies claiming to be owner of the trademark can apply for this protection. Trademark Registration: The Call of the Hour The purpose of a trademark is to protect the interest of both the trader and consumers alike – by preventing both innocent and malicious confusion of goods. The trademark indicates the relationship in the trading process between goods and the trader, trademark acts as an important medium of advertisement for goods and their quality. The aim of the trademark law is to allow an enterprise through registering its trademark to get the exclusive rights to use, assign or share a mark.

v scrupulous registration by third-parties. v Merely submitting an application for registration

allows you to use the ™ symbol. v Once registered, a trademark is protected for 10

years, and protection can be renewed time to time.

Trademark Registration: Easy asOne, Two Three!

Applying for a trademark can seem like a hassle, but the underneath the forms and formalities it is a simple three step process. This application can be filed within few days. While the processing time ranges from 18-24 months, upon submitting the complete application you can start using ™ symbol to stake your claim. Once the registration is complete, you may use the ® symbol instead, warding off imitators with the threat of legal penalty. Step 1: Trademark Search This search checks whether your business name or logo is similar to other already registered trademarks. These checks are preformed through the Trademarks Office, and can be handled by most experienced intellectual property attorneys. There are two kinds of search: online and offline. In order to receive complete and fully updated results, it is often recommended to preform both – as the systems are frequently incomplete or internally inconsistent. Once found to be unique you can proceed to the next step. Step 2: Create Trademark Application Based on the results of the search conducted, your attorney will either suggest modifications or draft the best trademark application possible. But if you are of the opinion that the trademark is rightfully yours by virtue of ‘prior use’, you need to establish that the trademark had been continuously used in India by your business with respect to the same goods and services from a date prior to the use of the registered trademark or the date of registration whichever is earlier. The trademark application can be filed physically or online with a fee payable as per the rules of the Trademark Office. You may use ™ symbol as soon as you file the form of trademark application. Step 3: Trademark Registration

§ The Trademark Office will first check your application to see if it's already been taken. If it has, a trademark objection will be raised.

§ If it has no objection, it makes an advertisement in the Trade Marks Journal.

§ If there is no opposition from other businesses in the next four months, your trademark is registered around six months later.

Trademarks: A Versatile Tool In simple terms, trademark is an image, word, or phrase which represents your business, and your business alone. A visual symbol like a word, signature, name, device, label, numerals or combination of colors used by owner of the trademark for goods or services or other articles of commerce to distinguish it from other similar goods or services originating from different businesses. Whether it is a word, symbol, logo, brand name, wrapper, packaging labels, tagline or a combination of these doesn’t matter. The form of a trademark is largely irrelevant – it is defined by its purpose. A trademark is a device used by manufacturers or service providers to identify their own products and/or services and distinguish them from those of its competitors. As such, there are many types of trademarks that can be protected by registration. Some examples include:

• Names – including your business name, personal name, product line, or even signature.

• Words or Phrases – including any words or phrases you use to market, outside a few exceptions.

• Symbols – including letters, numerals, special characters, or any combination thereof.

• Graphics – including image, monograms, shapes, letters, symbols, and the like.

• Sounds – including cues, and sigils in audio format.

There are, however, a few limitations on what trademarks may apply to. In order to protect your marks, the trademark office does not permit the registration of marks identical or similar to earlier trademark being used for the same goods or services. It must be distinctive – capable of distinguishing your goods or services from those of others. A trademark is also restricted to accommodate certain public policy considerations – such as public sentiments, trade language, and deceptive marketing. These rules are often changing, and involve subjective and nuanced judgements; so a trained intellectual property attorney would be best equipped to guide you through the process.