In most of the documentation work, people are not aware of the pre-requisites and this leads to a delay or complications or rejection of Trademark Applications. Today we are going to provide you with an insight on what to be careful of before filing a Trademark Applications or during the negotiation process with your CA (Chartered Accountant) or CA Firm.
This content is not a meagre copy and paste post or published by the AI content Generator. Its the lesson which I learnt and sharing it with our readers.
Most of the times, Startups or New Ventures (Proprietor or Business Entity) are short of funds during the initial time. Right?
To save the pennies, we look out for a cheaper CAs (Chartered Accountants) and most of the time these cheaper CAs cost you time and money at a later stage. This could be a fault, ignorance or lack of updates and in few cases they assume that we are aware of it.
My Suggestion is to go with a CA who charges average (not to high) and if you are willing to spend, go with a reputed CA firms and reputed CA agents.
I would like to highlight the point that the Government fees for Trademark registration or you can say fix Govt. fees for Trademark registration is ₹4500. Actually it is ₹9000 but due to the subsidized rate under the StartUp India Program or MSME booster initiative the rate is discounted by 50%.
The remaining amount is mentioned as the CA’s / CA Firm’s/ Consultant’s fees. This vary from ₹500 to ₹4500 and may go upto ₹20000. But the remaining amount excludes some documentation process needed for applying.
Here are the pre-requisite document and charges
Form-48 on a Notarized Stamp-Paper of denomination ₹50 to ₹1000. This costs you from ₹150 to ₹500 if done on ₹50 stamp paper. Note:Form-48 is a document to authorize a person or an entity which is the Govt. Approved/Appointed Trademark Attorney.
Actual Trademark Application on a Notarized Stamp-Paper of denomination ₹50 to ₹1000. This costs you from ₹150 to ₹500 if done on ₹50 stamp paper. Note: This form contains the Name or Symbol or Image or Asset or Signage or Sound to be trademarked.
A major misconception or a major confusion that most people have while filing for the trademark.
The fixed Government fee for Trademark is ₹4500 (discounted) per class and per asset to be trademarked. Confused?? What does this mean?
Asset Refers to Name, Sign, Image, Logo, Sound, Tagline. Each of it is considered as a separate asset. This means If Brand ABC wants to get a trademark for his company name and logo. Then ABC as a textual name will be considered as one asset and ABC symbol as another asset. So, the company need to file two applications for the name and the logo/symbol separately. Means Government fees multiplied by the number of assets to be trademarked.
Class: Every item be it belt, t-Shirt or hoodie or bag. Everything is allocated under a product class. This means if ABC is selling Leather Belts and selling T-shirts and shirts then he has to pay 2x Application fee for Name and 2x Application fee for the logo, as its being registered for Leather Items and Readymade Textile items.
The net Govt. fees that will be paid to get the Trademark will be ₹4500*2(assets)*2(class) = ₹18000.
Trademark is not approved in 24-48 hours or 3-5 days or 3-4 weeks. There are process involved in it.
I am still going through the process thus I will be adding more information about it in a Later stage.
