• Trademark is a graphical representation used by the producers and service providers to distinguish their goods and services from those of the others in the market.
• It helps general public to identify the commercial source of origin of a particular product and differentiate it from other similar products.
• A letter, word, sign, logo, group of words, colours, slogans, numbers, symbol or a combination of any of these can be used and registered as a trademark.

• Legal protection for trademarks in India was introduced by the British, based on the common law principles of passing off and equity.
• The first trademark law for India was enacted in the year 1940. Currently, trademark rights in India are protected under the Trademarks Act of 1999 and Trademark Rules of 2002.
• The registration procedures are being administered by five trademark registries located in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad functioning under the Controller General of Patents, Trademarks and Designs.
• As per the Indian Trademark laws, registration of a trademark is not a mandatory requirement for claiming protection or using it in the course of business. Mere commercial use of a trademark is sufficient to establish the common law rights for the owner to enforce it before the courts.
• But registration acts as a primary evidence of ownership and validity of the trademark. Also, protecting an unregistered trademark is more expensive and problematic.
• Non-traditional trademarks like, three dimensional sign, sound and smell can also be registered in India.
• Since trademark rights are territorial in nature, any trademark registered in India can be enforced only within the territory of India and not universally.
• Applicants who wish to protect their brand name in multiple countries must obtain separate registrations in each country/region desired.

Registered trademarks in India hold the following advantage over unregistered trademarks; 

• Enables the owner to use the symbol ® with his trademark. Use of ® by unregistered trademark owners is an offence punishable under the Indian Trademarks Act.
• Gives exclusive right to use, authorise others to use and sell the registered trademark like a personal property.
• Prevents others from registering similar trademarks with the registry.
• Empowers the owner to initiate civil or criminal actions for infringement.
• Serves as a primary proof of ownership and validity of the mark during legal proceeding.
• Enables the owner to record the trademark registration with the Indian Customs Registry to block importation of counterfeit or infringing goods into India.
• Acts as a basic mark for the purpose of filing application for International Registration of Trademarks under the Madrid Protocol.
• Allows the owner to postpone commercial launch/use of his trademark up to 5 years from the registration date.

• Proprietors of a trademark can themselves file an application for registration at the appropriate registry.
• The proprietor may even engage a trademark attorney or registered trademark agent to file and prosecute his trademark application.
• But, a foreign applicant who is not a resident or who has no place of business in India must file the trademark application only through an advocate, trademark attorney or registered trademark agent or must give an address for service in India.
• A trademark application can be filed physically at the registry or electronically using the trademark e-filing facility available at the IP India website.
• India is a member state to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Hence claiming convention priority is possible in India within 6 months from the earliest foreign application filing date.
• Also India is a party to the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Trademarks and international trademark application can be filed from/designated for India.

• In India trademarks can be registered only if it is capable of being represented graphically, with distinctive characters and not descriptive of the goods/services for which the registration is sought.
• Also, a trademark can be registered only if it is already in use or proposed to be used in the market and satisfy all the statutory requirements.

• Trademark registrations in India are valid for a period of ten years from the date of filing an application for registration and are renewable indefinitely for subsequent periods of ten years on the payment of renewal fees before the expiry date.

A trademark registration involves a lengthy administrative procedure and a legal process that may last up to three years and requires lots of expertise as well. Each and every step taken during prosecution of a trademark application must be carefully considered in order to comply with the procedure laid down under the trademark laws.

Below is the overview of trademark registration system in India.

• In the i-era, a domain name or a website name acts as a digital mark that needs to be protected equally like a trademark.
• Registering a trademark as a domain name and vice-versa is more significant in enforcing rights in different medium.
• Though there is no specific legislaiton available regarding the protection of domain names in India, the courts have time and again conferred strongest protection for domain names under the common law principle of passing off and by extending the protection available under the trademarks act.
• Since domain names have transborder business value, different arbitration procedures have been put in place to enforce trademark rights in the digital medium.
• At the international level, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has introduced two alternative dispute settlement mechanisms (UDRP & URS procedures) to deal with disputes involving domain names registered under genering top level domains (gTLD) like .com, .org, .net, .donuts, .attorney.
• At the national level, countries have their own arbitration/judicial procedures in respect of domain names registered under their country code top level domains (ccTLD). For Example, in India, IN Registry is responsible for maintaining and administering disuputes in respect of domain names registered under .in ccTLD.

• In 2013, the ICANN started rolling out 2000 new gTLDs like .burger, .pharmacy, .sucks, .lawyer for domain name registration. For effective rights protection mechanism in the digital medium, the trademark owners can now use the Trademark Clearinghouse introduced by ICANN.
• Owner of a trademark mark can apply for entering their trademark record with the clearinghouse to avail priority registration of his trademark as a domain name under every new gTLDs during its sunrise period and to receive alert notifications if someone tries to register the trademark as a domain name under any new gTLD.
• Apart from trademark registration in India, for an efficient protection of brands online, trademark owners must consider having it recorded with the trademark clearinghouse.