Trademark Opposition Online Registration Procedure In India
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Trademark Opposition

Trademark opposition is basically filed for opposing a trademark which is advertised in the journal by the trademark registry from registration. It is mainly a way to protect your trademark being misused by the others or to stop someone trying to take benefits of your creativity or efforts without your permission.

For this Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 had been introduced by the government which is repealed by the Trademark Act, 1999 in the year in the Fiftieth Year of the Republic of India

A trademark opposition is a legal challenge to the right to register a particular trademark. A trademark opposition is instituted by filing a notice of opposition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and paying the required fee. The trademark notice of opposition must be filed within 3 months of the date that the trademark application is published for opposition unless a request for an extension of time to oppose is filed with the Board (which is usually instantaneously granted).

A trademark opposition must allege one or more grounds for challenging a trademark application. Most often, a trademark application is opposed by someone who owns prior rights in an identical or confusingly similar trademark. But, trademark applications can also be challenged on a number of other grounds. For instance, oppositions may be based on the opposer’s belief that the trademark is merely descriptive, deceptively misdescriptive, generic, functional, or likely to dilute the distinctive quality of the opposer’s famous trademark. In addition to alleging a valid ground for opposition, the opposer needs to show that it has standing to oppose the application. In other words, the opposer must allege in the notice of opposition that it has a direct and personal stake in the outcome of the proceeding and that it could be harmed by the registration of the trademark.

Shortly after a notice of opposition is filed, the Board will institute the opposition proceeding, assign it a proceeding number, and notify both parties of the schedule the opposition will follow. This schedule informs the parties of many important dates and deadlines by which certain actions must be taken. However, the schedule can be quite easily amended through mutual agreement between the parties and approval by the Board.