New Requirements for Registration of Trade Marks in India

Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks dated 9th of January 2012 bearing no. CG/F/ Public Notice/ 2011/ 81. In a move to bring about accuracy of trade mark records and applications and to limit the potential for misuse of a broad claim in case of description of goods and services of a trade mark, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks has issued the aforementioned circular which requires Trade Mark applications to have the following information, failing which the Trade Mark Applications will not be processed henceforth:

1. Description of Goods / Services: Actual description of Goods /Services in respect of which the trade mark is proposed to be used or has been used should be mentioned and terms like "all goods/ services", "etc.", "all other goods/ services included in class……" , "goods/services not limited to ……….." shall not be entertained. Thus, when filing a trade mark application one should only mention those goods / services in respect of which the applicant is using / proposes to use the trade mark.

2. Names: The full names (initials are not allowed) of Proprietors in the case of a Proprietorship Firm, the full names of all Partners in case of a Partnership Firm, name of the Managing Trustee in case of a Trust and name of the person representing the society in the case of a Society, should be mentioned.

3. Date of USE: In the case of a claim of date of prior use of the trade mark, the actual date- consisting of the day, month and the year, when the trade mark was used should be given and not just the year and the month.

4. Translation/Transliteration: Proper translation/transliteration of the trade mark should be provided in the case of Non-English characters appearing in the mark.

5. Visibility of Trade Mark: The trade mark should be clearly visible.