New trademark rules ease filing regulations, halve fees

The government on Monday brought down the number of forms required for filing an application from 74 to eight and almost halved the application fees.

Monday’s notification replaced the Trade Mark Rules, 2002. It brought down the application fees for individuals, start-ups and small enterprises to ~4,500, the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a press release. To promote e-filing of applications, the fee for online filing has been kept at 10 per cent lower than that for physical filing. Overall fees have been rationalised by reducing the number of entries in Schedule I from 88 to just 23. To boost ease of doing business, the method to determinate well-known trademarks has been clarified for the first time. Also, provisions relating to expedited processing of an application for registration of a trademark have been extended right up to the registration stage. It was only up to the examination stage.

Steps for service of documents from applicants to the registry and vice versa through electronic means have been introduced to expedite the process; email has been made an essential part of address for service to be provided by the applicant or any party to the proceedings so that an office communication can be emailed.

The government has brought down the examination time for an application from 13 months to just 1 month in January 2017. Figures suggest that filings have jumped 35 per cent in 2015-16 against the previous year.