Trademark bill referred to parliamentary panel

New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI) The Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill, 2007, aimed at enabling Indian and foreign nationals to secure simultaneous protection of trade marks in other countries has been referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce headed by BJP Rajya Sabha member Murli Manohar Joshi.

It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 23 by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.

The Bill seeks to amend the Trade Marks Act, 1999 to bring it in line with the provisions of the Madrid Protocol, an international system which offers a trademark owner the possibility to have his trademark protected in several countries by simply filing one application directly with his own national or regional trademark office.

The Bill seeks to authorise Registrar of Trade Marks to deal with international applications originating from India as well as those received from the International Bureau of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a United Nations body based in Geneva.

Unlike the present system in India, a single application with one fee and in one language will ensure registeration of trade marks in countries specified by an applicant under the amended bill, in the Trade Marks Act. At present, an applicant has to make separate applications in different langauges and pay different fees in respective countries where he seeks to register the trade mark.

Once an Amendment is carried out, it would accelerate the process of trade mark registeration and can be accomplished within 18 months. It will reduce the period of filing objections to three months from four months now and thus speed up disposal of objection proceedings.

It will simplify the law relating to transfer of ownership of trade marks.

The Parliamentary Committee has invited individuals and organisations to give their views in writing or orally.

UNI