In India, trademark applications are not as complicated as many people think. Recently, trademark rights have become easier to obtain. In order to ensure that no other company is able to copy your logo, you must apply for trademark registration as soon as possible. Patenting your brand name or logo is straightforward. The TM symbol can be used within three days. Government and professional fees can be divided among the costs involved. In India, the former is fixed regardless of location, while the latter is determined by the person you hire. When it comes to trademark registration, paying too much to a professional may seem like a waste of time, but if you don't get the right advice, you might end up spending a lot more than you expected.
Cost Of Trademark Registration: After the Japanese drugmaker filed a petition seeking to add and sell SRL trademarks to its portfolio, the Delhi High Court, on 8 July 2020, ordered a status quo with regard to the SRL diagnostics trademark and prohibited any third-party rights from being created.
Azure Knowledge Corporation, an Ahmedabad-based IT firm sued Microsoft Corporation for allegedly violating its trademark. In its reply filed in March, Microsoft claimed that it was the prior user of the mark in the field of cloud services.
Cost of a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC): Around ₹ 1400
The Trademark Registry charges ₹ 4000 per application. Now, how is the application-defined? Let’s say you’re registering the brand ‘Razr’ and its logo. If you’re doing so separately, these would be counted as two applications. If the brand name is contained within the logo and this is all you wish to register, it would be a single application. But you also need to pay by the number of categories you are registering the trademark in. So if you’re registering ‘Razr’ within more than one class (i.e. categories), you will pay ₹ 4000 for each.
Professional Fee: ₹ 2000 Onwards
Yes, you pay professional fees to register your trademark. You do this because it’s best for a professional to do the trademark search on your behalf. Intellectual property lawyers are well-versed in the trademark database and would, therefore, be able to tell you whether or not the name or logo is available beyond question. This is important because if the government objects or another entity opposes your application, you will end up spending a lot more money.
If There’s an Objection or Opposition – Cost of Trademark
Legal Fees for Objection: A government can object to your application for a variety of reasons, but this usually happens because your name is the same as or too similar to an existing application or registration. Now, if this happens, the registrar doesn’t charge you, but you will need to pay a lawyer to get this removed. Lawyer fees will depend on the complexity of your case, but usually, it’s no more than ₹ 5000.
Legal Fees for Opposition: This can be a lot more complicated. Simply put, an opposition is an objection by an entity other than the government. It usually means that a competitor or some other private entity believes your application compromises its rights. As this can could involve several meetings with the Registrar, it could end up costing you much more in legal fees. For the first affidavit itself, you may end up shelling out at least ₹ 8,000 to ₹ 10,000.
If you do a thorough search, to begin with, though, this is unlikely to happen, in which case it’s just ₹ 4000 in addition to what you decide to spend on professional fees.
Conclusion
If you are planning on applying for a new trademark, you must set out your budget with a great deal of care before you begin the application process. If you do not have a digital signature certificate, then you will have to apply for a new one if you do not have one. Nevertheless, you have to be prepared at the same time to pay a specific sum of money to the service provider who will handle all the procedures involved in making an application for a trademark in your name.
