Trademark Search in India: Complete Procedure

Narendra Kumar

03 Jul, 2019

With the advent of globalization and economic development from 1992 it has been seen that new brands from all around the world are coming in India for doing business. To have a fair competition between the brands and also that consumer may also not get confused between various brands and their sign, trademark is usually used by brands when they apply for the same. These trademarks are registered in their name. If a trademark is registered by a particular company that company can only use that trademark and no other company can use already issued or registered trademark. But, one of foremost important thing in whole process is how to find a trademark so in this article I’m going to explain about trademark search which is not in already use.

What is Trademark?

Trademark is a sign, symbol, logo, image or a brand on a product which help us to identify that a particular symbol or sign belongs to a particular brand or company.  Also, Trademark defined under Section 2 (zb) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 as,

Which Act and authority governs Trademark in India?

The trademark in India is governed by Trademark Act 1999 which was incorporated from the stone laid down in TRIPS agreement. Also, the authority that control the functionality of trademark act is Controller General of Patent Designs and Trademarks.

What are the benefits of having a registered trademark for the brand or the company?

Following are the few benefits of registered trademark:-

• Protection against any type of delicacy
• Registered brand is most valuable assets of the company which could be transacted in monetary considerations.
• Helps in expansion of business and long term growth of the company
• Helps in image building and credibility in market
  
  

 What is Trademark Search?

As discussed earlier a trademark should be unique and different from existing trademark so that it could provide an exclusive use of a mark to identify or represent its products or services. Hence, a person who wants to have a unique trademark for its products or services is required to do lot of searching which is generally carried out by applicant or on its behalf by the professionals.

Hence, an online database is maintained by Controller General of Patent Designs and Trademark. On its website a trademark search database is available which can be used by both professional as well as non- professional to do trademark search. Anyone person who wants to have a trademark registered can make an application there and it contain database of registered, expired and objected applications.  A trademark search of the trademark database will provide the user with valuable information about trademark query.

How to do Trademark Search in India?

• First of all, the professional will search the trademark names and generate an extensive trademark search report.
• Visit the trademark search database on the website whose link is https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx  on the browser and you will see a page as shown below.   

• In search type you have to select word mark as at the top of the page from the three options from Vienna code, phonetic and word mark.
• Enter the word mark i.e. trademark you would like to search the trademark from the database of trademark. The trademark database can be compared against the search query on three conditions – “Start with”, “contains” and “match with”.
  • Start with will display all entries in the trademark search database that start with the values provided for search.
  • Contains will be used to display all entries in the trademark search database that contains the value provided for search.
  • Match with will display all entries in the trademark search database that matches with the value provided for the search.

• Enter the class of the trademark that is applicable. By classifying trademark into various categories it would be easier for identifying it within various classes. Trademark is divided into 45 trademark classes with each class representing a distinct group of goods or service. A registered trademark or trademark application will only be pertinent to the class under which it was applied for.
• Click search button to begin the trademark search on the website(Link given above).
• Once you have done with search for registered trademark the applicant have to draft your trademark application.
• After the online trademark search and the application should be drafted and the applicant submit the application to trademark registry.
• The trademark registry should conducts a hearing and checks for violations consistent with ipindia Trademark Public search
• If there are no objections by the opponents while searching trademark names, your proposed Trademark will be registered within 4-6 months and intimation shall be provided to you and further compliance will also be informed to you.

Suggested Reads:

• Brief classification of Trademark Class 1 to 5
• Brief Classification on Trademark Class 6 to 11
• Brief Classification of Trademark Class 12 to 20
• Trademark classes Detail – class 21 to 28
• Trademark class 29 to 45- detailed classification of Trademark

How many classes Trademark Search is provided by the portal?

There are 45 trademark classes at present from which we have to choose only one at a time for the searching.

Some examples of classes are as follows:-

How to deal or understand the result of the Trademark Search?

The trademark search results page below displays a list of the entire trademark registered with the word “McDonalds” registered under class 29. It is well known that a trademark of such name has been registered by an American company doing fast food business all over the world. It is also to be noted that by clicking show all the details like trademark registration date, expiration date, owner information all the things that it deals with trademark.

Hence, this web portal contains all the details relating to search of trademark. Also, anyone can go to the website and search the desired trademark information without any pre – requisite as such.

Conclusion

Intellectual property protection plays an important role in protection of the trademark and the brand created by the owner by investing so much time and energy over my years. Thus, every owner wants to have some guarantee which protects its hard work and energy from the copycats. To protect it, the owner should try to make a trademark which is unique from the existing trademark so that it would be difficult for other to copy. Thus, the trademark searching is a good tool for doing it. From the starting point of searching till registration a professional having expertise knowledge in this field will complete the necessary formalities. The trademark search is done by checking the proposed trademark for violations against the database of existing word marks consistent with the Intellectual property India public search.