Remember 2016, when the Trade Marks Office abandoned 1.66 lakh applications overnight — and promptly got stayed? In 2023 it tried again to clean the register, but this time more carefully: a notice giving applicants 30 days to fix things before abandonment.
2016: the mass abandonment
On 1 April 2016, the Trade Marks Office abandoned 1,66,771 applications on the ground that the examination-report reply hadn’t been filed within 30 days. Predictably, the Delhi High Court stayed the orders, and the TMO issued a further notice letting applicants write in to say their application had been erroneously treated as abandoned.
2023: the more careful approach
Fast-forward to 2023: the TMO issued a public notice (Trade Marks Journal No. 2090, 6 February 2023) informing the public and practitioners that:
- applications where no examination-report reply was filed within the prescribed time; and
- applications that received oppositions — where the TMO properly served the notice of opposition but no counter-statement was filed —
would be treated as abandoned unless the missing reply or counter-statement was filed within 30 days of the public notice.
Crucially, the TMO was careful this time — it merely issued a notice with time to respond, rather than abandoning applications outright.
The verdict
This is a positive step toward cleaning the register. One practical gripe: it would have helped if the counsels’ names were included in the lists of thousands of applications/oppositions — sparing IP lawyers from cross-checking every application number (or doing a VLOOKUP) to find their own matters.
The takeaways
- A gentler clean-up — 2023’s notice gave 30 days to respond, unlike 2016’s overnight abandonment.
- Two categories — missing examination replies, and missing counter-statements to served oppositions.
- Positive for register hygiene — clearing dormant applications.
- Room to improve — listing counsel names would ease practitioners’ work.
Frequently asked questions
What did the TMO’s February 2023 notice require? Applicants with missing examination-report replies or missing counter-statements to served oppositions had to file them within 30 days, or the applications would be treated as abandoned.
How did 2023 differ from the 2016 mass abandonment? In 2016 the TMO abandoned 1.66 lakh applications outright (later stayed); in 2023 it gave a 30-day window to respond before abandonment.
Why does the notice matter? It’s a careful step toward cleaning the register of dormant applications while giving applicants a fair chance to respond.
What could have been better? Including the counsels’ names in the lists, to save practitioners cross-checking thousands of application numbers.
Useful official resources
- The Trade Marks Act, 1999
- Trade Marks Registry — IP India