Indian Trademarks Rules 2002 Amended

NEW DELHI – Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) would like to inform its clients that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry has published a notification in the official Gazette on December 29, 2010 stating that the Trademarks Rules, 2002 have been amended in respect of trade mark searches as well as fees for filing trade marks.

Consequently, the official trade mark searches have been discontinued forthwith by the Trademarks Registry and have been made available freely on its official website.

Further, the filing fee in respect of a new trade mark application has been increased from INR 2,500/- to INR 3,500/- per application with effect from December 29, 2010, the date of publication of Gazette Notification.

Accordingly, a deficit fee of INR 1,000/- has to be paid in respect of applications submitted on or after December 29, 2010 till January 13, 2011 with the previous filing fee of INR 2,500/-.

The last date for submitting the said balance fee is February 28, 2011. Failure to pay the said fee on or before the deadline would result in the shifting of the filing date to the actual date of payment of the deficit fee.

Further, we are pleased to announce that AGIP India will attend the deficit fee for its clients without incurring any additional cost to them.