Introduction
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry in India have issued a new notification on 6th March 2017 through its department of Industry Policy and Promotion (DIPP) mandating the applicability of new trademark rules with immediate effect. The new rules aim to simplify the procedure by reducing the number of forms and promoting online filing. This article shall highlight major changes brought in by the new rules.
Major Amendments
- The amendment notification identifies two additional types of body corporates namely, Small enterprise and startups, definition of the same are provided under clause 2(v) and 2(x) respectively. Also, based on the feedback received from the stakeholders, the department have kept a lower fee of INR 4,500 only for these body corporates. In the draft notification, it was proposed to keep it INR 8,000.
- The number of forms required to be filed for trademark registration are reduced from 74 to 8. It will reduce the documentation and compliance cost for the stakeholders.
- To promote the online filing of forms, the filing fee for online filing is kept as less as 10% from the fee for physical filing of the same form and applications.
- For an audio trademark registration, the applicant should produce the same in MP3 format accompanying graphical representation. The length of such audio should not exceed 30 seconds.
- The regulations also provide for the modalities for the “Well known Trademarks” for the first time.
- In another major step, the department have provided an option to expedite the process from the registration stage itself. Earlier, this option was available till examination stage only.
- The Rule 26 also now formalize the procedure for registration of 3D trademarks and Trade Mark of combination of colors.
- New rules for signing of documents by the applicant and the opponent have been introduced.
- The provision of agency is also amended under the new law. In case of withdrawal of agent fresh service address should be provided under a period of 2 months of withdrawal of agent.
- The time limit for renewal of the registration of the trademark have been increased from six months to 1 year before the expiry of the trademark.
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