How to do a Trademark search in India – Check your trademark availability in India – A Step by Step guide

1.0 Introduction

Every person invests a lot of time thinking of that perfect brand name under which he can work and then proceed to put all his commitment and time for filing that desired trademark. After investing more of your precious time and money to build that brand you realize that someone has already registered it in his name and hence you can’t work anymore under that name.

As said, there are a lot of people out there who end up making this mistake. Hence this article is for everyone who wants to analyze the risks and liabilities before choosing a brand name.

Also read: How to register Trademark in India

2.0 Why trademark search is important?

It is always better to search a trademark than infringing any law by using an already registered mark. Hence, the first step towards choosing your brand is to search whether the same is available or not.

For example, Paytm and Paypal both are unicorn companies, i.e. billion dollar companies and where Paypal has accused Paytm for copying its logo. If you look closely at their logos you can easily find a similarity between the two.

Trademark search is to ensure that the brand name that you have selected is available. Here available means that someone has not already registered it.

Further, with so many trades and brands already registered and more companies entering the market every day, there is a lot of threat of deception, hence to make sure that your brand stands out and people to notice it you must register your brand name.

3.0 Categories of Trademark search and their importance

Though legally there are no categories to trademark search however for practical ease, we have classified them into two types of trademark search which are as follows:

CLASS SEARCH (primary search)
NAME SEARCH (secondary search)

4.0 Appropriate Class search for Trademark Registration

As per the international classification of goods and services, the trademark classes have been sub divided into 45 classes. The class 1 to 35 belongs to goods and class 36 to 45 belongs to services. Hence, the first step under trademark search is to choose the appropriate class under which your goods or services classifieds.

As said, after successfully doing a class search an applicant can proceed to name search which is the second category of the trademark search. Name search can happen only when a class search is over. This is because name search can happen only when you know your class for the appropriate search.

For example, if a person is starting a business in legal services, he first has to search for his class which 45 in his case and then he can proceed for name search.

4.1 How to do class search for trademark registration

Class search can be done online on the official website of the trademark. The following are the steps to conduct a class search:

#Step no 1 – Visit the official website of trademark registration

The first step to conduct the class search is to visit the official website of trademark registration. The link for the aforesaid official website is as follows:

https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx

The link given above is the direct link to the official website of Government of India for the public search of the trademark.

#Step no 2 – Click on the class details link on the top

Once you have opened the official website you can see class details written on the top left corner of the page. Clicking on that it will take you to a new window of trademark class search

#Step no 3 – Fill the appropriate details in the columns

On this window, you can search your class heading. This page has 3 columns the first one is of language which would be English by default, the second one will be search term and the third one is a NICE class.

Applicant has to keep the 1st and the 3rd column as it is and type his product or service category in the 2nd one. For example, if an applicant is conducting coaching classes he simply has to type coaching and he will get options relating to his search. Same as shown in the picture below:

This way the applicant becomes familiar with his class type and after knowing it he can go to the second part of the search.

5.0 How to do the trademark name search after choosing class

Name search is the secondary search to follow in trademark registration. The trademark name search has to pass through various checks before being available to use.

Every trademark needs to check through the following checks before moving forward with the filing:

Check through Prohibited marks: Prohibited marks are declared by the Government of India which can be checked online on the trademark website as shared above. If your trademark includes any mark which is similar to any existing prohibited marks. Few examples of prohibited marks are Asoka Chakra, Lord Buddha, ISI, ISO etc.

Check through well-known marks: Well known marks are the marks which are declared to be well known by the trademark department. In other words, those marks which are very famous and popular comes under this category. Few examples are Google, Ford, TATA etc.

If your mark passes through both the above checks then you can proceed to the third step which has been explained in the following steps:

#Step no 1 – Visit the trademark website and search under word mark

The first step for trademark logo or name search is to visit the website and write the respective brand name in that particular column. The link to the website is as follows:

https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx#

Further, the applicant has to choose word mark as the search type. In word mark type, ‘word’ means the trade name of the applicant he wants to register. Hence selecting wordmark is important.

After selecting word marks the applicant can select from the different options given like start with, contains and match with. To conduct a thorough research it is advised to search for all three options.

#Step no 2 – Phonetic Search for Trademark Registration

After a thorough search of word mark type, the second type of search is phonetic. Phonetic search provides you the list of the trademark which is similar to you while speaking. In other words, the words which are similar while speaking comes under this category.

#Step no.3 – All through the Trademark list

After doing both the above searches, you will get the list of trademarks which are either registered or objected or abandoned. You need to search and check whether your trademark is different from the existing one and whether it is liable for registration or not.

By going through this list you can understand if it is safe to use a brand name or not. You can also understand whether or not it will be objected.

6.0 Conclusion

It is very important for everyone to conduct a trademark search before registration. Hence, it is also important to know that a mark can only be registered in 1 class if any individual wants to register the same mark for 2 or more classes he will have to make individual application for each class.

For example, Amul is a brand which provides milk as well as chocolates, hence Amul has registration in class 29 and also in class 30 for the same name.
Brands like AMAZON and eBay have registration of the trademark in almost all 45 classes.

If you want to register your trademark, then please email us at info@hubco.in.

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