Trademark holders can finally stop fretting over errors in their trademark registration certificates with the much-welcomed notice by the Indian Trademarks Office dated September 6, 2019.  After multiple requests from the Trademark Owners and trademark Counsels troubled with wrong details on the trademark registration certificates, the Trademark Office has gotten the ball rolling by affording an opportunity to make right the errors made by the Trademark Office on the  Registration Certificates and issuing a fresh Registration Certificate. Considering that the Indian Trademark Office only issues electronic Registration certificates, reissuing them should not be an issue.

We can expect a horde of Trademark Owners/ Trademark Counsels to rush to the Trade Mark Office to obtain registration certificates with a varied range of corrections (some interesting ones, I dare say!). Before this godsent notice, the Registry did not issue fresh registration certificates with the corrections, despite the errors being at the Trademark Office’s end. The trademark owners had their options limited (mostly left to their own/authorized counsel’s imagination and perseverance) to making requests via letters, phone calls, tweet (yah! On Twitter) and in-person with multiple follow-ups till the changes were made, upon which, the Trademark Office would rectify the same in its online records.

Now, an application can be made to the TMO via email in a simple form as depicted below, before October 9, 2019.

There is no intimation of any prescribed fee or a specified timeline within which the certificate with the correct details will be issued. However, for the Trademark Office that is as overburdened as it could be, this project may be a mammoth task. Though the Trademark Office has graciously decided to give such Trademark Owners an opportunity to finally hold the perfectus certificate sans the gaffes, it may be a while before the corrected registration certificates are issued. Nevertheless, it’s one step in the right direction.

Sincerely,

A lawyer with umpteen certificates to check.