How to Avoid Getting an Objection on Your Trademark Application

Often before beginning a business, we pay a lot of attention to the viability of really getting a Trademark effectively over the Brand name. Trademark filing and securing Trademark Registration is altogether a distinct recreation.

In case your brand is actually specific, there might be a chance that you can protect the trademark registration just within 7-8 months (but you could begin the use of your trademark from the date of submitting itself). During this process, one of the reasons that can delay the timeline of your brand getting registered is it if receives an objection from the ministry. Though there is no way you can predict or assure the occurrence of this objection, you can at least try to avoid it by following a few things before making the application.

What exactly is trademark objection? Basically, while you log in to ipindia.nic.in and check your trademark application status and it says that the reputation is OBJECTED and there is an alert displaying Awaiting reply to examination report, it means an examination file has been issued against your Trademark application.

This exam is executed done by the trademark examiners, in which the law motives on why you should no longer get the trademark or what are the problems you need to correct on your trademark application. All those objections are uploaded in a form of a file, which you could download from the trademark registry website. It is needed to be replied within 1 month from the date of issuance of the report.

So we shall constantly try to keep away from Trademark Objection, but, 90% of the Trademark application do get at least one which can be easily dealt with by using any capable attorney (however in case you are stuck with beginner trademark agents who know not how to put forth smart arguments, your trademark registration might just get stretched). Let us understand how we may additionally shorten this Trademark registration process.

It is very critical to match your Trademark application in accordance with the law to emerge as your savior in avoiding any objections. There exist many stories where people invested lakhs and lakhs within the packaging of the goods, just after submitting the trademark application. And because of trivial mistakes had to pay a humongous cost whilst their trademark had been rejected.

1. To conduct a thorough search.

• Conduct both word mark search as well as phonetic search.
• Suppose you have chosen word CURVE as your brand name, so you need to search availability of word CURVE as it is and also KURVE, KARVE, CORVE And all other possible combinations of a word that are either resulting in same sound or similar sound.
• Collect the search reports and properly analyze them. In case there exist a similar sounding word already on record, try to choose another brand name.

2. Do not use descriptive words:

In case your brand name is available, proceed to next level and understand whether that is a legally acceptable brand name. That is it must not be descriptive in nature, you might find it strange but trademark law does not allow mark that exactly describes the nature of your products or goods however generally people tend to opt for such names. So it is always advisable to opt for a coined word, words that have no dictionary meaning and makes no direct reference to your products or goods.

For example, you should not opt for a name like “hair shine” for a shampoo, because an ordinary person can deduce that it’s some product related to hair care, which is expressly barred under Trademarks Act.

3. Do not use the name of any geographic location

Try to avoid using a name of any geographic location or place such as India, even though it may be cleared if used in combination of words, but generally, in most case, such trademarks often get objected under section 9.

4. Do not make any clerical error

The most common mistake people make while filing for a trademark application is writing a wrong goods/service description. Even though when you are sure that your product falls in a certain class, try not to use a common term for it. Always check the exact language that is given under nice classification, select the words and description accordingly. Let us understand this more clearly by taking an example.

Salt falls in class 30, but you will not find the term rock salt or black salt in class 30, so it is better to avoid this in description as salt and related items will be covered well within the term salt and as black salt or rock salt is not specified in class 30, there is a high chance for the examiner to object this word in description. This will not only increase the chance of an objection in your examination report but also have a cost attached to it.

In case you need to register a Trademark and be free from any possibility of trademark objection and get a successful trademark registration, comply with the above-cited points. Any expert Attorney will maintain in mind above points and will have accurate arguments & description to make your Trademark Application free from any cracks that may be exploited by an examiner.

These precautionary measures not only help to secure a trademark registration surely but also quickly.