Copyright Objection

During the process of copyright registration, there is a chance that the copyright application may be met with objections by the registrar. An objection may rise for various reasons such as if there are similarities found in the application and existence of similar work. The copyright objection may rise anytime from 30 days of the filing of copyright application.

 

REASON

After thorough examination of the application, if objections rise, the registrar informs the applicant of the same and requests for clarifications. As it is a legal obligation, it is important to file a response to the copyright objection letter. If a response is not filed, then the registrar may cancel the copyright application and thus, the application is updated as ‘rejected’ in the copyright journal.

To avoid any such results, it is important to respond to the copyright objection to obtain and sustain the legal rights of the work.

REPLY TO OBJECTION

Copyright objection letter is a legal letter and thus responding to it requires legal knowledge and drafting skills. There is no fixed format to draft a response to copyright objection letter. Thus, either an applicant can draft the response by itself if it possesses enough legal knowledge or it can also hire a legal expert to help respond to the copyright objection letter.

PROCESS

Filing a response to the objections raised by a Trademark Examiner in the Trademark Examination report does not guarantee registration of the trademark. Trademark registration is a process and registration is provided only by the Trademark Registrar – based on the facts of each case. Hence, our professionals can only make best efforts for registration based on expertise.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Copyright Objection means, the copyright department has examined or checked your copyright application and while checking, they have reasons to object the application and ask for clarification on certain points. The copyright registry sends a letter to the applicant asking for reply.

 

It is important to submit a proper reply to Copyright objection letter within 15-30 days of issue of the letter.

If a legal reply is not filed, the copyright registry may cancel the copyright application and update the status of the application as Rejected

Procedure to submit objection response requires legal knowledge and drafting skills. There is no fixed format for copyright objection reply and it depends upon case to case.

The objection reply is posted to the copyright department, once the reply is received by the registry they will review the copyright application and will proceed with registration.

Once you saw that your trademark application status on IpIndia website is showing objected, then you need to go through the trademark examination report which you might received or you can dig out the same from IpIndia website.

Once saw the TM Examination report, you must need to file the reply within 30 days .

After filling the TM-12 i.e replying the TM objection raised by the trademark examiner it will take 30 to 60 days to change the status of the trademark application.

Trademark Objection refers to an objection raised by the trademarks examiner to register your trademark on different grounds which may include any one of the following:

  • The trademark appears to be similar to an existing mark in the trademark database.
  • The trademark contains phrases or symbols deemed to be offensive.
  • Trademarks which make use of geographical names or international proprietary names.
  • Trademark is identical or descriptive of goods/general//indicating quality or nature of goods.
  • If trademark appears to be in violation any of the points above, then the trademarks examiner can raise an objection and your mark will stand termed as ‘Objected’.

The most common reasons for TM Objections are:

  • Objection of Section 9 – Trademark is descriptive or general in Nature
  • Objection of Section 11 – Similar trademarks are available in TM Database
  • Incorrect TM form used
  • Description in the TM-1 is not as per WIPO
  • Address in the TM application is incorrect
  • TM-48 or POA is not filed with the TM-1 form
  • Applicant name is not correct

If the trademark objection is not filed within the specified and reasonable time, then there is an option with the TM examiner to mark that Trademark application as Abandoned.

There are many reasons the TM Examiner raised the objections and some of them are:

  • Applicant have not used the correct Trademark form for Application
  • Applicant have used not used the correct Trademark Applicant Name
  • Applicant have not filled the correct details of the firm or firm type
  • The Trademark Form TM-48 (POA) has not been filed by TM Attorney
  • Applicant have mentioned incorrect address on the trademark application
  • The description in the TM Application is not as per WIPO
  • If the same trademark or a similar trademark already exists
  • If the trademark name is descriptive or general or offensive

Once the application of Trademark registration is filed in the respective Tm Department and examined by a Trademark Officer/Examiner, a trademark examination report is sent to the trademark applicant or person authorised by the trademark applicant. Trademark examination contains the status of the Trademark application, more than 70% application got the objected status, and for these 70%, the applicants needs to respond back the objection raised within 30 days of receipt of the TM Examination report.

Trademark Objection raised by the TM Examiner and is in the initial stage of the trademark registration, which easily gets cleared in most of the cases while the Trademark opposition can be said the last hurdle in getting a registered status in the Journey of trademark registration and raised by the general public after trademark gets published in the TM Journal.

 

Once the Trademark is Published in Trademark’s journal, there is four-month window will be given to the general public to raise the trademark opposition. Trademark opposition comes after the trademark objection gets cleared and the TM is already advertised or re-advertised in the TM Journal.