Makhija & Associates

All you wanted to know about Intellectual Property Rights

Our mission, says Deepak Makhija, is to become a world-class organization in the field of practice of intellectual property rights (IPR) matters.

Though Karnataka is a global research platform, it is sad to note that Bangalore does not have patents, copyright and other offices dealing with IP issues. The people of Karnataka have to go to Chennai every time since these offices are located there. In this background, there are very few IPR reputed consultants in the city. The leader in the pack is, Makhija & Associates, one of the reputed Intellectual Property Rights Consultants, with associates across the country and in major cities of the world to take care of various assignments in the field of Intellectual Property Rights Protection.

The company is engaged in the practice of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) such as Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents & Designs. It also undertakes company formations and Drafting of Agreements of Companies. Litigation matters in the above fields are a forte of the firm.

The firm is headed by Deepak Makhija, a trademark attorney experienced in the field for over a decade, Kiran Makhija, a trademark attorney practicing the intellectual property rights with over 10 years experience, Ram Makhija, High Court advocate, and Mrs. S.R. Makhija, ex-deputy Commissioner of Income Tax.

Our mission, says Deepak Makhija, is to become a world-class organization in the field of practice of intellectual property rights (IPR) matters.

What is the procedure for registering a trademark? In what areas can a copyright be registered? What are the benefits of having a copyright registered? Makhija & Associates gives our readers a bird’s eye view of this little known subject:

Trademark Registration
The procedure for applying for Trademark Registration is as follows:

1) Search:- A search is conducted at the Trade Mark Registry, Govt. Office to ascertain whether the trademark to be applied for is registrable or not.

2) Application For Registration:- An application needs to be filed after the search. Complete application documents have to be prepared and on submitting the same, an application number is received which is made available to the applicant along with copy of application.

3) Official Objections, If Any: Reply to filed against official objections raised under various sections of the Act.

4) Publications And Registration: The mark is then published in the trademark journal and a certificate of registration is issued.

TIME PERIOD: Application procedure takes about 40 days time after which you can start using ‘TM’ in case you deal in goods and ‘SM’ in case you deal is services. Registration certificate will be received after about 2 years (ap proxi mately).

The charges for Application of Trademark are as mentioned below:

Trademark Application: Rs. 9,500/- per ‘TM’

Payment Terms: 1)Rs. 1,500/- initially

2)Rs. 8,000/- after the search and at the time of signing the Trademark Application.

Note: The above charges are in normal due course and do not include any official objection & third party opposition if any.

Copyright registration
Copyright registration can be carried out for the following under the Copyright Act, 1957:

a)Logo / monogram / artistic work

b)Any book / study notes / any text or literary material

c)A computer software

d)Any drawing such as drawings of any machine parts

e)A Musical cassette or a CD or a movie film

f)Web site, Web Contents, Home Page.

Benefit/Advantages:
1.Your logo, style, font, get-up, color, scheme of your brand name gets registered and the same cannot be copied by any other business firm.

2.Certificate of Registration in respect of Copyrights is received within a period of 10 to 12 months (approx.). Whereas Trade Mark Registration Certificate is available after 3- 4 years.

3.The registration certificate is valid for a lifetime of the Proprietor of the brand name.

4.If the Copyright Registration is carried out and the same is infringed it is a cognizable offence i.e. there is no need to go through the normal Judicial procedure. One can director file a police complaint to get the thing right.

5.If the Copyright Registration is done, the complaint / civil suit can be filed at the place where the owner of the Copyright is situated. For Example: if you are situated at Mumbai and some other person is copying your brand name at, say New Delhi. You can file a case at Mumbai. The person who has infringed your brand name will have to appear at the court at Mumbai.

6.A Copyright Registration along with a Trade Mark Registration gives a very strong protection to the mark. Under the amended Copyright Act, very stringent action and fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- to Rs. 1,50,000/- has been provided for on infringement of the same.

7.In case of infringement of a trademark, the decision in a Court of Law is faster if the Copyright registration of the same has been done.
Procedure for registration of a logo/monogram (other than that of service Industries) :

a)To apply for search to ascertain whether any logo are on record which is similar to the artistic work (Logo)

b)Preparation of Power of Attorney on the required stamp paper.

c)Applying for Copyright Registration, if the search is cleared.
The above procedure takes about 6 months

d)Attending to the proceedings and obtaining Provisional Papers after necessary follow up. This procedure takes about 60 days. After this stage you can write © besides your brand names / artistic work.

e)Official objections / opposition, if any.

f)Receiving Registration Certificate after 12 months.

Procedure for registration of Software/Home page/Web Content/Book/any Literary Material/logo /monogram for service industries :
a)Preparation of Application fax Copyright Registration and submission of the same along with copies of software / book.

b)Attending to the proceedings and obtaining Provisional Papers after necessary follow up.
The above procedure takes about 45 days time. After this stage you can write © and “All rights reserved” on your software / book.

c)ReceivingRegistration Certificate after 12 months.

(Makhija & Associates: SF - 3, 2nd Floor, City Point Bldg., 13 - Infantry Road, Near Medinova Hospital, Bangalore –560 001; Ph 3241 6250, 4147 2650, 098224 59914, www.trademark.in Email: bangalore@trademark.in.)