Trademark is one such asset, which though intangible is a protection to the company and the investment that it has made and prevents misuse by similar businesses. It is a brand name, a logo, a tagline, a visual symbol, numerals or a combination which once registered prohibits other people from using the same thus providing you legal protection from rivals who want to capitalize on your hard work.

Trademarks in India are governed by the Office of Patents, Designs and Trademarks under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and based on the Trade Marks Act, 1999. The regime relating trademark registration in India has gone some major changes recently which have all been taken to improve India’s Intellectual Property Regime. Previously, there were 74 trademark application forms in play which have now been reduced to four, the fees however has been hiked from INR4,000 to INR10,000. To encourage e-filing however, the fees has been kept to INR9,000 which is convenient, easy and the bet way to register. Also, for individuals, startups and small enterprises, the fees is further low at INR4,500. Furthermore, the provisions apropos expedited processing which were previously available only till examination stage have now been extended to the registration stage. For overhauling the process and making it time-efficient and smooth, email has been made mandatory to allow office communication, video conferencing has been introduced to resolve issues and the number of adjournments have been limited to two by the parties in opposition. All this was introduced by the Trademark Rules, 2017 which replaced the rules of 2002.