You can operate without getting a trademark. However, lack of a trademark opens you up to lawsuits for copyright infringement. Filing a trademark is a foolproof way to find out if you share your brand name with any existing businesses. This also keeps your brand’s identity from dilution; with a trademark, you have the guarantee of being the only brand in your industry with your chosen name.   

Both of these serve a similar purpose: protection of intellectual property. But there are some distinctions.

• You can get a trademark on products, goods, and services. You can copyright your original creative expressions.
• A trademark protects your brand, ensuring it is the only one with its features in the industry. It does not protect the generic service, good, or product itself. A copyright protects your creation (music, movies, literature, art) from being plagiarized.
• A trademark has to be renewed every 10 years. A copyright lasts throughout the author’s life plus 60 years.
• During the process of trademark registration in India, businesses can use the term ™ on the trademarked item. Once it is registered, you will be able to use ®. You will use © for your copyrighted works.

Trademark registration in India is a fairly lengthy process. It can take anything between 18-24 months to complete. The process includes an elaborate trademark search, trademark journal publication, hearing, and finally registration. You might also come up against an opposition or objection, in which cases the Registry will look into the validity of your trademark request.

Note that you will receive the application number within a couple of days, at which point you can add ™ to your product/brand.

The Trademarks Act of 1999 lists the accepted kinds of trademarks as well as those that you cannot apply for.

Acceptable trademarks:

• Shape of goods
• Smell, sound, color marks
• Distinct 3D trademarks
• Non-artistic representations of words, numerals, letters, or a combination of these.
• Geometric figures, logos, stickers, or labels, collectively known as device marks.

Unacceptable trademarks (also known as Absolute Grounds for Refusal of Registration):

• Indistinct trademarks. Anything that does not possess characteristics that distinguishes a goods, product, or service from another cannot be accepted.
• Trademarks that are scandalous in nature.
• Anything that is likely to hurt the sentiments of any particular group.
• Deceptive or confusing items.
• Trademarks that refer to the generic term of the product, goods, or service instead of assigning a name to the brand. For instance, you cannot trademark ‘oranges and apples’ for your grocery brand. But you can trademark ‘Farm to Cart’.

Trademark registration in India can cost anything between 4500-10,000 INR. The slabs apply to different kinds of business entities. For instance, if you are an individual/sole proprietor, you will have to pay 4500 INR per registration.

There are three different kinds of trademark symbols.

• ™: You can add this to your logo or product name once you have filed for trademark registration in India.
• ®: You can add this once your trademark has been registered.
• ©: You can add this to your works (literary, artistic) in order to protect it from plagiarism.