With the increasing interest in the Intellectual property domain in our country, Trademark, Patents, and Copyright related interest is slowly gaining momentum.
The development of new government schemes like SIPP (Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection) is encouraging the young generation of our country towards entrepreneurship and startups rather than the old conventional employment.
A trademark application goes through various phases to get registered. One such phase is trademark examination, which is crucial for registering a trademark. During the whole trademark registration process, the application for trademark registration passes through various phases, and a status related to each one of these phases is updated on the official ipindia website. One such status is the trademark “refused,” which means the trademark is not allowed for registration.
Why my Trademark application is showing the status ‘Refused’?
There might be many reasons for refusal like:
– If the trademarks examiner is not satisfied with the Applicant’s response to the examination report, he might refuse the application after providing an opportunity for a hearing with the Applicant. The grounds of Trademark refusal can be Absolute grounds, Relative grounds, or related to improper classification of the goods/services, inadequate information about the Applicant, or the like.
– The application might even show the status Refused after successful opposition proceedings by a third party against the registration.
– If the Applicant fails to attend the hearing, his application might be Refused.
– If the relevant documents are not submitted, the application may get Refused.
What to do if your trademark is refused in India
A refusal order opens three routes. Each has its own deadline, and asking for one does not pause the others.
- Ask for the written grounds. Within thirty days of the decision being communicated to you, you can ask the Registrar on Form TM-M to state in writing the grounds of the decision and the materials used. The date you receive that statement counts as the date of the decision for the purpose of an appeal.
- Ask the Registrar to review the decision. A review application on Form TM-M, with a statement of the grounds for review, must be filed within one month from the date of the decision. The Registrar may allow up to one further month on request.
- Appeal to the High Court. An appeal ordinarily lies within three months from the date the decision is communicated, or from receipt of the written grounds if you asked for them. Appeals no longer go to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, which was abolished in 2021.
You can also file a fresh application that deals with the grounds of refusal. A fresh application gets a new filing date and does not keep the earlier one.
Diarise every applicable date as soon as the order arrives, and take advice on which route suits your case before any of the periods runs out.
How can Intepat help you in dealing with the REFUSAL order?
Trademark response filing, review petitions, and all complex legal processes require thorough documentation and legal expertise to complete the process and overcome the refusal. The best approach would be that the trademark examination response is filed appropriately and accurately to satisfy the examiner and allow the application for publication. But even if the application is REFUSED, it is always recommended to seek the help of professionals to overcome the refusal while adhering to the timelines and suggest the correct and least cumbersome approach to the Applicant.
One latest case related to the trademark application for the mark’ Nationz Network’ was refused after filing the examination response and hearing. After that, a review petition was filed within 30 days, explaining the reasons for raising the review and why the application should be accepted. A hearing was granted, after which the mark was accepted and published in the trademarks journal.
Intepat legal team has expertise and experience of many years in dealing with many such complex issues for successful Trademark Registration of our clients.