Indian Trade Marks Registry Responds to Suggestions from INTA

The Indian Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) on February 20 issued a public notification addressing the grievances and related suggestions made by various stakeholders in meetings held in December 2019, at the Trade Marks Registry offices in Chennai, Mumbai, and New Delhi.

These meetings were held pursuant to a Delhi High Court Order passed by the Honorable Justice Prathiba M. Singh, which directed the office of the CGPDTM to consult associations and stakeholders to revise their systems and processes.

INTA has held regular meetings and made written representations to the CGPDTM on behalf of INTA’s global membership, and its views are largely regarded as the legitimate concerns of brand owners and relevant stakeholders. An INTA delegation comprising INTA’s India Consultant and co-chairs of the India Global Advisory Council represented the Association in the meeting at the New Delhi branch of the Trade Marks Registry on December 11, 2019.

Pursuant to this meeting, INTA submitted a comprehensive written representation to the Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks on January 9, 2020, containing suggestions to address technical and procedural problems in processing trademark applications and forms.

As a response to all the representations received by it and after carefully considering them, the CGPDTM promptly issued a detailed notice addressing the issues brought to its attention.

A few highlights of the clarifications issued by the CGPDTM include:

• The Registry will make necessary efforts to upload an opposition/show-cause cause list at least one month prior with effect from April 1, 2020.
• Nodal officers have been appointed for each branch of the Registry to solve issues in a time-bound manner, and an order in this regard was issued on January 3, 2020.
• All the suggestions related to the online module will be considered by the Registry, and in view of the space constraints, it was mentioned that due care will be given at the time of implementation of the new eTMR (electronic Trade Marks Registry) system.
• All possible measures are being taken to reduce the delay in publication of the Annual Report.
• All applicants who filed an application before March 6, 2017, will have the opportunity to update their email ID, and a notice in this regard was issued on December 3, 2019.
• The suggestion for multiclass applications to be advertised in respective classes instead of the present practice of Class 99 was accepted and will be implemented soon.
• To avoid long wait times, hearings will be scheduled in slots as of April 1, 2020.
• With regard to TM-M (Request for Amendment) and TM-P (Post Registration Amendment), the office informed the stakeholders that processing of TM-M/TM-P requests have been streamlined and that these requests are taken up for disposal by the same officer dealing with the application at a particular stage.

A copy of the Public Notice can be accessed here on the CGPDTM website.