What Next?
After Filing a Trademark

                     
-Ganapatheeswaran,PVS Giridhar & Sai Associates

 

Is it almost time to renew your registered trademark, but you're unsure of what paperwork to fill out? This short article on renewal of trademarks would help you to understand the process from start to finish, making it easy to get it done on your own, without the help of a lawyer.

The rights vested by a registered trademark can be perpetual, provided the trademark is renewed as prescribed. The term of a trademark on lapse makes it susceptible to infringement and other activities that may prove threatening to a product/brand and its existence. It is therefore highly important to monitor your trademark and keep renewing at the Trademark Registry in India to make the most of your mark, while diminishing the chances of your brand space to be ridden over.

After filing the trademark one have to renew their application on or before 10 years from the date of registration. The 10 year period of registration is reckoned from the date of making of the application [section 23(1)], which is deemed to be the date of registration.

Under rule 63 an application for renewal is to be made in form TM-12 “at any time not more than six months before the expiration of the last registration of the trade mark”. This would imply that form TM-12 is not entertainable if filed six months before the renewal date. Fee for filing TM-12 is Rs.5000/- for each class. If it is a collective mark/certification mark then the fee payable is Rs.20,000/-.

Proviso to sub-section (3) of section 25 enables the registered proprietor to get the registration renewed for a period of 10 years, on an application made in the prescribed form (TM-10) and payment of prescribed fee and surcharge within six months from the expiration of last registration. The fee payable is Rs.3000/- per class in addition to the fee payable with TM-12.