IP Connect

Ministry of Commerce and Industry invites Comments on the Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, has published Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015 to replace the Trade Marks Rules, 2002 which the Central Government proposes to do in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 157 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 for the information of all persons likely to be affected by them.

Some of the highlights of the proposed amendment are as under:

• The number of forms for filing various applications have been simplified and consolidated into fewer forms
• Wide discretionary powers have been given to the Registrar of Trade Marks to determine whether or not a trade mark is “well-known” and include it in the list maintained at the Registrar’s office.
• The application fee for inclusion of a trade mark to the list of well-known trademarks is INR 1,00,000/- (1 lakh) for e-filing and INR 1,10,000/- for physical filing.
• For determining whether or not a trade mark can be registered as well-known, the Registrar may stipulate the criteria in this regard and also call for such documents as he thinks fit. The Registrar is also empowered to remove the trade mark if it was later found that the same was erroneously included in the list.
• Applications for sound marks can now be accompanied by a sound file in MP3 format.
• Steep rise in various fees, from filing of trade mark applications to its renewal. Almost all the fees have been increased by 100%. An extra 10% will be levied against the fees if the trade mark application and forms are not submitted in the electronic mode, but are filed physically.

*Proposed fees listed above are for e-filing only. An additional 10% charge will be levied for physical (paper) filing of applications.

The Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules will be take into consideration after the expiry of a period of thirty days from November 19, 2015 i.e. within December 18, 2015.

The Ministry has invited objections/ suggestions from the public on the Draft Rules by December 18, 2015.

The objections/ suggestions can be addressed to the Additional Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry sent by e-mail to sahni.palka@nic.in or mailed to the following address:

Additional Secretary to the Government of India,

Ministry of Commerce and Industry,

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion,

Udyog Bhavan,

New Delhi – 110 011

Our firm is also taking steps to submit its comments on the said Draft Rules. We would, therefore, request all our readers to send us their comments/ objections/ suggestions to the said Draft (Amendment) Rules, 2015, if any, so that we may include them in our comments.

The Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015 can be accessed here.