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MEANING OF OPPOSITION:
The Trademarks Act, 1999, provides for the registration of a trademark in India. The owner of the trademark has to apply to the Registrar of Trademarks (‘Registrar’) for obtaining the trademark registration. Upon receiving the application for registration, the Registrar will advertise the trademark in the trademark journal.
Any person can file for trademark opposition to the Registrar within 4 months from the date of advertisement of the registration application in the trademark journal by giving a notice in Form TM-O and payment of fees.
GROUNDS FOR TRADEMARK OPPOSITION:
The grounds on which a person can file opposition for trademark registration are:
- The trademark is identical or similar to an already existing registered trademark.
- The trademark is descriptive in nature.
- The trademark is devoid of distinctive character.
- The trademark is customary in the present language or the established practices of business.
- The application for trademark registration is made with bad faith.
- The mark is prevented by law or contrary to the law.
- The trademark is likely to cause confusion or deceive the public.
- The trademark contains matters likely to hurt the religious feelings of any section or class of people.
- The trademark is prohibited as per the Emblem and Names Act, 1950.
MEANING OF OPPOSITION REPLY:
Opposition reply also known as counter statement. The applicant must file his/her counterstatement to the notice of opposition to the Registrar in Form TM-O within 2 months of receiving the copy of the notice of opposition stating his/her facts. The Registrar will serve the copy of the counterstatement to the opposing party.
If the applicant does not file the counter statement within 2 months of receiving the notice of opposition, the Registrar will consider that the trademark registration application is abandoned and thus will not proceed to register the trademark.