Cabinet approves proposal to align with global trademark system

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for India’s Accession to the Nice, Vienna and Locarno Agreements, that would harmonise the classification systems for examination of trademark and design applications, in line with the systems followed globally.

The accession is expected to instill confidence in foreign investors in relation to protection of IPs in India. The accession will also facilitate in exercising rights in decision-making processes regarding review and revision of the classifications under the agreement, said an official statement.

It will give an opportunity to include Indian designs, figurative elements and goods in the international classification systems. The Nice Agreement deals with the international classification of goods and services for the purposes of registration of marks, the Vienna Agreement deals with an international classification of the figurative elements of marks and the Locarno Agreement deals with an international classification for industrial designs.

The government also started the process of notifying the dates of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls by sending the Election Commission’s recommendation to President Ram Nath Kovind. The first notification will be issued on March 18 for the polls starting April 11. The EC had announced the poll schedule on March 10 and had sent the mandatory recommendation to the Union Law Ministry to notify the Lok Sabha election dates.