A person seeking global trade mark need not apply for it in several countries incurring big cost, once India's trade mark law is amended.
The government introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday the Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill for simplifying the trade marks registration procedure.
At present, anyone seeking registration of a trade mark in different countries, has to make separate applications in different languages and also pay different fees.
The present Act has no provision for facilitating Indian nationals as well as foreign nationals to secure simultaneous protection of their trade marks in other countries.
The Madrid Protocol, which is a simple and cost-effective system for international registration of trade marks, enables nationals of its member countries to obtain trade marks registration within 18 months by filing a single application with one fee and one language in their country of origin.
This in turn is transmitted to other designated countries. India's accession to the protocol entails changes in the law.
For this, the government is seeking to include a new chapter in it for protecting international registration of trade marks.
The bill also proposes to remove the discretion of the Registrar to extend the time for filing notice of opposition. It provides for a uniform time of four months in all cases for the trade marks.
