TRADEMARK LAWS

IN INDIA
Purnima Mathur
 INTRODUCTION
The Trade Marks Act was the first statute law on trade marks in India. Prior to that
protection of trademarks was left to the governed by Common Law. Cases concerning
trade marks were decided in the light of section 54 of Specific Relief Act, 1877, while
registration was secured by obtaining a declaration as to ownership under the Indian
Registration Act, 1908.
The said enactment was amended by the Trade Marks Amendment Act, 1941 and later by
two other amendments. By the Trade Marks Amendment Act, 1943, the Trade Marks
Registry, which was formerly a part of the Patent Office, Calcutta was separated from the
Patent Office to constitute a separate Trade Marks Registry under a Registrar of Trade
Marks at Bombay.
Thereafter, the Act was amended by the Trade Marks Amendment Act, 1946, to give effect
to the reciprocal arrangements relating to trade marks between the Government of India.
Moving forward, The Trade Marks Bill, 1993 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19.5.1993,
which was passed by the Lok Sabha on the lines recommended by the Standing
Committee. However, as the Bill failed to get through the Rajya Sabha, it lapsed on the
dissolution of the Lok Sabha. A new Bill titled as Trade Marks Bill, 1999 was introduced in
Rajya Sabha and eventually passed by both the Houses of Parliament. The Bill received the
assent of the President on 30.12.1999 and became an Act.
 BASIC CONCEPTS OF TRADEMARK
The essential function of a trademark is to exclusively identify the commercial source or
origin of products or services, such that a trademark, properly called, indicates source or
serves as a badge of origin. In other words, trademarks serve to identify a particular business
as the source of goods or services.
The use of a trademark in this way is known as trademark use. Certain exclusive rights attach
to a registered mark, which can be enforced by way of an action for trademark infringement,
while in some countries unregistered trademark rights can be enforced pursuant to the
common law tort of passing off. It should be noted that trademark rights generally arise out
of the use or to maintain exclusive rights over that sign in relation to certain products or
services, assuming there are no other trademark objections.
Different goods and services have been classified by the International (Nice) Classification of
Goods and Services into 45 Trademark Classes. The idea of this system is to specify and limit
the extension of the intellectual property right by determining which goods or services are
covered by the mark, and to unify classification systems around the world. 1 to 34 cover
goods, and 35 to 45 services