Trademark Hearing Board

A Trademark Hearing Board is a formal proceeding conducted by the Trademarks Registry to address concerns, objections, or queries raised during the examination of a trademark application. It offers a chance for the applicant to present arguments, clarifications, and evidence to address objections and advance the application in the registration process.

A Trademark Hearing Board may be necessitated by various objections, and three common categories include objections under Section 9, Section 11, and formalities:

A trademark hearing is for removing the objections raised under Trademark Registration. The chances for trademark objection are high nowadays. A Trademark Hearing Board is nothing but an appearance before the registrar of trademarks or any senior examiner. It happens only if the department is not satisfied with the reply filed in the objection. The hearing could be either in person or through a Trademark agent or Trademark attorney.

The applicant needs to file a reply for any such objection within 30 days from the date of issuance of the examination report against the objections raised by the Department under section 9 or/and 11 of the Trademarks Act, which are absolute grounds of refusal and relative grounds of refusal respectively. The examiner goes through the reply and read all the submissions made therein. It is at the discretion of the examiner whether to accept the submissions/defense of the reply filed. If unsatisfied with the reply filed, the examiner changes the status of the mark to “Ready for show cause hearing” and thereafter, issues a hearing notice mentioning the hearing date on it. The hearing usually takes place between 8 to 12 months post issuance of the hearing notice, depending upon the work load of the respective department.

A Trademark Hearing Board could be conducted at the stage of pre-publication of the mark in journal or post-publication of the mark in journal at the opposition stage. The hearing notice usually comes in the registered email of the applicant, but still It is important to track your trademark online to prevent it from getting abandoned.