Renewal Of An Expired Trademark

Trademark registration in India is well founded and properly regulated. The trademarks act 1999 of India regulates the registration and management of trademarks in India. It protects trademarks, well known marks and brands.

Once registered, a trademark is granted for a period of 10 years and can be subsequently renewed for another 10 years period. During the registration period the trademark holder can enjoy the benefits of registration that prevents others from using the registered mark.

At times a trademark is not renewed and this makes the mark in question susceptible to registration by others. Thus, it is very important that trademarks are renewed at appropriate time. The questions is can we re-register a trademark whose duration has expired?

Even if the mark has been expired, one can apply for its re-registration. And in case, someone else applies for registration of expired trademark as per the prescribed procedure, owner of expired trademark can file objections at the registry, tribunal or appropriate forum, says Geeta Dalal, partner at New Delhi based IP and ICT law firm Perry4Law.

It is a good strategy to keep a close watch at the registered trademarks as renewal of a trademark is definitely less cumbersome as compared to opposition and re-registration efforts, suggests Geeta Dalal.

So even if your trademark registration period has expired do not loose heart and approach a good lawyer or law firm to get it renewed or registered as soon as possible.

Infosys And CII Endorsed Opinion Of Perry4Law On Cloud Computing Regulation

Use of cloud computing in India has many cost benefits. However, it has to solve many regulatory issues as well. For instance, we have no dedicated data protection law in India, no privacy law in India and no data security law in India.

In these circumstances, cloud computing is not a viable option for India as cloud computing is based upon essentials like privacy protection, data protection and data security and India has none. As a matter of fact, we have no cloud computing policy in India except the one suggested by Perry4Law, the exclusive techno legal ICT law firm of India.

According to Geeta Dalal, Partner at Perry4Law and a techno legal specialist, “There is no cyber security in India and even cyber security policy of India is missing. There is no privacy law in India. There is no data protection law in India. And there is no data security law in and cyber security law in India. In short, there is no legal framework for cloud computing in India at all. With these negative developments India should not use software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing for crucial governmental services”.

This viewpoint has now got the support of corporate house like Infosys and industrial body like CII. Infosys, which is sharpening focus on tapping “cloud computing”, today said India needed a policy framework for the new service that enables companies to share IT infrastructure and cut costs. It opined that some of the issues like data privacy and security should be addressed properly, which is possible only with a regulatory framework.

Regulatory framework would give confidence that the service providers will provide the service securely and reliably. We need a regulatory framework in place also to ensure data privacy.

Perry4Law is in the process of providing techno legal inputs regarding privacy, data security and data protection laws to the Indian government very soon. Let us hope the suggestions of Perry4Law would be accepted for better cloud computing environment in India.