What does the status of your trademark mean?

Trademarks are registered in India under TradeMarks Act, 1999. It is a tedious process that involves a lot of paperwork. A proprietor is can get any unique mark registered as trademark. A mark can be anything, that is, name, number, alphanumeric, logo, signature, design, sound, pattern, word, or a combination of numbers, letters, logos, designs, signatures, patterns, sounds, words or any of the above. What does the status of your trademark mean? Trademarks often take up as much as a couple of years to register and in the meantime its status is not clear.

Trademark registration allows 100% exclusive rights of use to its proprietor and no one else can use it without his permission. Infringement of copyright is a serious offence that is punishable by law. Trademarks get Registered for a maximum period of 10 years at a time. Upon expiry they can be renewed any number of times but only 10 years at a time. The application for trademark registration can either be submitted online or through a lawyer or professional consultant at any of the 5 centres.

Application status

It takes time to Register a Trademark. Upon application for trademark registration you have wait for a lot of time before the decision is finalized. In the meantime a prospective proprietor can use TM as a superscript on your mark. TM is used for trademarks that are not yet registered with the Trademarks Office and is under the process. It is used to denote that the application of registration is underway. Once registration process is completed and official announcement is published in the Trademarks Journal, proprietor can start using the R symbol as a superscript to the mark.

Meaning of different status

• Formalities Chk Pass: This means that the basic requirements of application have been checked.
• Marked for Exam: This means that an application has been put up for examination, that is, whether its registration is possible or not.
• Exam report passed: This means that a mark can be registered.
• Objected: The objection report is submitted by an examiner when he is of the opinion that trademark must not be registered.

Other statuses include advertisement with Acc, opposed and registered. 

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