India changes trademark law

Trademark application fees have risen in India after the country amended its trademark law.

The amendments, announced in the Official Gazette on December 29, 2010, also affect the Trademark Registry’s services. It can no longer carry out ‘official’ searches—which were conducted for a fee—for its customers.

Application fees have risen by Rs1000 ($22) to Rs3500 ($77) per class. Ashwin Julka, a partner at Remfry & Sagar in New Delhi, identifies multiple causes.

He said: “The registry has been in the process of revamping its systems for quite a while now. Also, a rise in applications has led to an increase in work load, which needs to be matched by an increase in personnel. These factors have led to increased costs.”

He added: “Further, changes such as the ‘free online search facility’ shall dry up an existing revenue stream.”

Until the amendments, official trademark records were only accessible by the registry, and a search of those records could only be carried out for a fee.

An expedited search could also be carried out, but this cost five times the standard fee. Julka said: “Some estimates peg the loss of revenue on account of the ‘free search facility’ at more than Rs40 million ($9 million)—and the increase in application fees is likely to offset these losses.”

The registry has moved to digitise its records as India bids to meet international benchmarks following its compliance with the TRIPs agreement in 2003. Free online searching is seen as a step in this process.

Julka said: “This has been done to simplify the process of application/registration of a mark and make it more transparent—thus bringing Indian practices in sync with international trends.”