Trademark Objection Handling

The application for Trademark Registration can be objected, during the examination process, under Section 9 (Absolute grounds for refusal) and 11 (relevant ground for refusal) of the Trademark Act.

1. Similarity with other Trademarks:

Similarity of Trademarks is one of the most common but major Trademark Objection in India and internationally, it is very clearly under section 11 (i) of the Trademark Act, in simple terms it is called as a Section 11 Trademark Objection on an Application. This arises in case the Applicant’s TM is similar or identical to someone else’s mark already applied or registered under the act.

2. The Trademark Lack of Distinctive Character:

If one trademark is unable to distinguish a goods or service of one person from those of another person are said to be devoid of Distinctive Character and hence is liable to be objected. This is again a common ground of Objection and also an absolute frond for refusal of trademark.

3. Descriptive Mark:

As per Section 9 of Trademark Act, if a Trademark contains a common word which use to identify the quality or quantity or value of goods or service, the mark shall be objected under the absolute ground of refusal.

For example, for a food industry, the mark “Tasty foods” will be rejected by the Trademark Register as the mark clearly describes the quality of the goods/service. But whereas the mark “Tasty” cannot be a descriptive word in Computer related goods and hence can be allowed for Registration.

4. Generic Words:

Once again section 9 restricts the Generic names too. Generic terms means common words that we are using casually. Because of the reason that those names cannot have distinctiveness to the goods/service. Some examples may be “Hi” or “Hello” or “Good Morning”.

5. Offensive Trademarks:

If a Trademark consists of any word which is offensive in nature, the mark will be against public morality and public order and hence can be struck down from registration under section 9 of the Trademark Act.

6. Other grounds:

There are some other grounds for refusal of a trademark such as…

1. Government symbols or names
2. Religious symbols or terms
3. Personal names

Steps to be followed for Trademark Registration