Trademark is a part of Intellectual Property and is considered as intangible yet movable property. It is governed by the Controller General of the Patents, Designs and Trademarks in India. Trademarks signify the identity of your business and protect for a longer duration.
You can trademark a name, logo, symbol or even a device. Trademark Registration helps to secure the brand name and build trust with the customers. The trademark owner is entitled to use it for his/her profit and take legal action in case of any infringement.
Trademarks are of great value to any business and influence the sales to a significant level. It mirrors your products or services and provides an edge over others in the market.
At times, the owner can transfer his/her trademark to another person. Selling a trademark also known as trademark assignment refers to the assigning of a trademark from your name to any other person.
It usually happens when the entire business is sold off, and it owns any registered trademarks. However, it is not compulsory in every case. The person selling the trademark is known as an assignor while the other party to which it is sold is called an assignee.
The transfer of proprietary rights depends on person to person and how the assignor wishes to complete the entire process. There are two types of trademark assignment which are defined below –
In this type of trademark assignment, the assignor can transfer complete rights of the trademark to the assignee. For example – royalties, further rights to transfer etc.
In this type of trademark assignment, the rights are restricted to specific products or services and will be decided by the assignor.
The assignor can transfer full rights and value of the product or services he/she deals in.
The assignor has the right to restrict the assignee from using the trademark under a similar class of products or services. It means that both the parties can use a similar trademark but for different products or services.
With the selling of trademark, both the parties are benefitted. The terms of the assignment are decided mutually, and under the Trademark Act 1999, it is made sure that no one’s interest is hampered.
The assignor gets a good value for his/her established brand. It is beneficial for the assignee as well since the person will be able to enter into the market with a well-established brand name.
To start the application process for the trademark assignment you need to fill out a form and submit to the registrar. Either one or both the parties can request for registration. However, it needs to be done within a time frame.
The registrar views the application and all the related documents, and if satisfied, the assigning will be done successfully. After applying, it needs to be done -
The entire process is pretty simple and does not require much of the documents. Trademark assignment provides an opportunity to use a well-established trademark without the need of going through the complete registration process or new filing.