Trademark

A trademark is a name or a symbol used by a company on its products with a legal monopoly over it. Trademark is legally registered and basically serves the purpose of uniquely identifying a company or a product in the competitive market.
In a layman’s language, what a signature is to a man, a trademark is to a company. A trademark can be a logo, hallmark, tagline etc. As per The Trademark Act, 1999, a trademark is a mark capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of others.

Relevance of Trademark

It is highly important for a company to be uniquely identified in order to claim originality. The Trademark is an asset of a company that gives the company the claim over its other assets as it establishes ownership right of a company over its products. A trademark helps the consumers to identify any product of the company in a market full of competition ensuring originality of a product. It is a protective tool not only to the consumers against the fake products but also to a company as legal protection. A trademark prevents any unfair practices existing in an economy like the competitors adopting a similar name or trademark of a successful company to gain popularity. This could also affect a brand image. Having a trademark enables to license and sell a brand by having an exclusive right over a trademark upon the registration.

Advantages & Benefits of Trademark

Identification & Distinction of Product or Services: A trademark prevents an unfair competition by protecting the use of a symbol or logo or anything as a trademark. As within an economy, there are numerous companies who might keep a similar name. In that scenario, the trademark is the only thing that enables a consumer to distinguish between the products and select the desired product.

Intangible Asset: In case there is another company claiming the same trademark as another registered company, the registered company is given preference as the original trademark “registered” is their trademark.

Legal Protection: The act creates a unique legal identity through which a company or its product can be identified. All the companies with registered trademark have their names mentioned in the register maintained in the Trademark registry office.

Classes of Trademark:While filing the application for Trademark, the class of the trademark has to be specified according to the set of goods the applicant will deal with. It is important to choose the right class for the smooth process of registration without hindrances.

There are two classes of a trademark namely-i)classes for Goods, ii)classes for Services which are further divided into 45 classes.

Classes for Goods

Classes for Services

• The Symbol ™ signifies a common law right in a trademark. This does not guarantee that the owner’s mark will be protected under the Trademark law. The owner may use the symbol upon the refusal for registration of marks.
• The Symbol SM signifies a common law right in a trademark but in connection with service mark covering services like banking, legal or any other professional service.

The Symbol ® signifies a notice of registered ownership. The owner is protected under the Trademark law. This is issued only after getting the trademark certificate issued by the trademark authority.