Saturday, May 5, 2012

Convention Application Under Indian Trademark Law

Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) have already discussed the required documents and formalities for trademark registration in India. The trademark law of India is incorporated in the Trade Marks Act 1999 and the procedure for registration of trademarks in India is governed by the same.

Once a proper trademark application is filed, the examination of trademark application under the trademark law of India begins.

In some cases, the application may contain a declaration claiming priority as per the Paris Convention. In such cases, it should contain the information pertaining to date of the earlier application, number of earlier application, state or country in which the earlier application was filed or where the earlier application is regional or an international application, the office with which it was filed and the country or countries for which it was filed.

If the number of the earlier application is not known to the applicant at the time of filing of the application the applicant may furnish the same within two months from the date of filing of application in India. The Registrar may extend the period if he is satisfied that due to the circumstances beyond control, the applicant could not furnish the particulars within the initial two months period, on a request made on Form TM-56 for the purpose.

Under section 154(2) of the Trade marks Act 1999 of India, where a person has made an application for the registration of the trade mark in the convention country and he makes an application for registration of the trade mark in India within six months after the date on which the application was made in the convention country, the trade mark shall, if registered, under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 be registered as of the date on which the application was made in the convention country. That date shall be deemed to be the date of registration for the purpose of the Act. Under subsection (3) where applications are made in two or more convention countries, the period of six months will be reckoned from the date on which the earlier or earliest of those applications was made.

The above period of six months which is the statutory requirement is to be strictly complied with for giving the benefit of priority date. Where the application is not filed within six months only the actual date of filing in India will be given and no priority date will be admissible.

Where a right to priority is claimed by reason of an application for registration of a trade mark duly filed in a convention country under section 154, a certificate by the Registry or competent authority of that trade marks office shall be included in an application for registration under sub-rule (3), (4), (6), (7)(b), 8(b), (11), (17(b) or (18)(b) of rule 25, as the case may be, and it shall include the particulars of the mark, the country or countries and the date or dates of filing of application and such other relevant particulars as may be required by the Registrar.

Unless such certificate has been filed at the time of the filing of the application for registration, there shall be filed, within two months of the filing of such application certifying or verifying to the satisfaction of the Registrar, the date of the filing of the application, the country or countries, the representation of the mark, and the goods or services covered by the application.

Where a single application under sub-section (2) of section 18 is filed from a convention country for one or more classes of goods or services, the applicants shall establish a sufficient ground to the satisfaction of the Registrar for the date of filing of application in all such classes.