Getting a trademark over your brand name is one of the most vital parts of a business which many people tend to overlook. And being such an important part, it is one of the most daunting tasks for all the business owners. The time for your trademark registration depends on your brand name. If your brand name is unique from every perspective, then there are chances that your trademark registration will be completed with seven to eight months after which you can start using the trademark symbol beside tour brand name. But, you can also start using a trademark symbol for your brand name right after you fill out the form, but for that, you will need to hire an attorney who will look after the rest of the process.
But before you get started, the most important thing for you to lookout is to avoid the trademark objection in any possible ways. But what is trademark objection? Well, after you have submitted your trademark registration form, you will need to wait for your application to get processed. And after your application gets process, you need to log in to the ipindia.nic.in and check the status of the trademark application. And if you find out that status is objected along with an alert which is showing ‘Awaiting Examination Reply,’ then it means that the report of your examination has been issued against your application for the trademark.
The examination is carried out by the trademark examiners, and they will let you know the problem with the trademark application or why you can get a trademark for your brand all in the form of report which will be uploaded at the ipindia.nic.in. You will need to download the report from the website of the trademark registry.
It is essential that you reply to the trademark objection report or the examination report within one month after the report has been issued. And once you have replied to the trademark objection report, it will take another one to two years for the examiner of the trademark registry to take any further action.
Though trademark objection is nothing unique and 90 of the application gets an objection which can be handled by any competent attorney easily, but you should always try to avoid getting trademark objection as much as you can. So, here are a few tips that will help you to avoid trademark objection.
Tips for avoiding trademark objection
- Do a thorough research
While deciding the brand name, make a thorough research of the name form every angle. Do a word search as well as a phonetic search to make out all the nearest possibilities of the usage of the name. Try out different combination of alphabets which of the name which will help it to sound the same. Collect and analyze the report form trademark check and if you find out that there is any brand name which has similar words or similar sounds, then switch to some other name.
- Avoid using descriptive words
If you find out that your brand name is unique, then the net thing that you need to do is to find out whether the name that you are using is competent legally. You should avoid using any names which would describe your product or service as it is one of the primary reasons for trademark objection. So, rather for coined names.
- Avoid using any geographical location name
Under section 9 of the trademark law, it is stated that no brand can use any geographical location as their brand name. So, if you want to avoid trademark objection, avoid using geographical location in your brand name.
- Avoid making any clerical error
A common mistake done by most of the people while filling up a trademark application is writing a bizarre service or product description. Always look out for words that fall under a certain class and check the description and words used accordingly.
So, while filling out a trademark application, follow the above tips to avoid getting objected.