Trademarks registration: India among top 3 nations

Indian companies have become active in registering trademarks globally after India joined Madrid Protocol last year. Since last July 2013 when the mechanism was made available to Indian companies, some 185 applications were filed for global registration, said Chaitanya Prasad, Controller General of Patent, Design, Trademarks and Registrar of GI.

He, however, mentioned that application for overseas players for registration of trademarks during the period were 11,618.

For registration of trade marks, India has been on of the top three active country for both local and global manufacturers. From the level of 60,000 applications (after the Trade Marks Act, 1999), the country now is witnessing applications of over 2 lakh.

In 2012-13, only 12,268 of the 43,674 patent applications filed could be examined. Of these 4,126 patents were granted. As many as 4,544 applications were not pursued and 357 were rejected.

About 22 per cent of the total 43 applications was from Indian companies. There are about 200 India-specific geographic indications.The Union Government has set up a think tank on intellectual property rights, which is engaged in deliberations on the new issues including functional design and utility models.