The previous part of this series examined Section 9(1) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, which sets out the general absolute grounds for refusal of trademark registration. Section 9 as a whole thus provides the complete set of absolute grounds; Section 9(2) prescribes four further specific grounds under which a mark shall not be registered as a trademark:<\/p>\n
\n“A mark shall not be registered as a trademark if:<\/p>\n
\n
- It is of such nature as to deceive the public or cause confusion;<\/li>\n
- It contains or comprises any matter likely to hurt the religious susceptibilities of any class or section of the citizens of India;<\/li>\n
- It comprises or contains scandalous or obscene matter;<\/li>\n
- Its use is prohibited under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Section 9(2)(a): Deception or Confusion<\/h2>\n
Marks that have the potential to deceive the public or cause confusion shall not be registered as trademarks under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. Deception or confusion may arise from similarities between the proposed mark and existing marks, from something contained within the mark put forward for registration, or from the manner in which the mark is used. Section 9(2)(a) is primarily concerned with the deceptive nature of a mark arising from something inherent in the mark itself \u2014 such as the nature, quality, or geographical origin of the goods or services \u2014 and not based on similarity between marks.<\/p>\n
The primary object of this provision is to safeguard the interests of the public. Accordingly, if a mark is misleading or false, it will be refused registration notwithstanding that the applicant acted in good faith [Boots Pure Drug Co.’s Ltd. Trademark,<\/em> [1937] 54 RPC 327], that no opposition was filed [Diamond T Motor Car Co.’s Application<\/em> [1921] 38 RPC 373], or that the affected party has consented [Dewhurst’s Appl.<\/em> (1896) 13 RPC 288].<\/p>\n
Section 9(2)(b): Religious Susceptibilities<\/h2>\n
Section 9(2)(b) prohibits registration of a mark that contains or comprises any matter likely to hurt the religious susceptibilities of any class or section of the citizens of India. This ground is particularly relevant given the common practice in India of employing religious symbols, names, and images of deities as trademarks.<\/p>\n
Section 9(2)(c): Scandalous or Obscene Matter<\/h2>\n
Marks comprising or containing scandalous or obscene matter are not permitted to be registered under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. Whether a mark is scandalous or obscene is determined on a case-to-case basis, and the burden of proof lies on the applicant to establish by evidence that the mark does not fall within this prohibition.<\/p>\n
Section 9(2)(d): Prohibited Emblems and Names<\/h2>\n
Section 9(2)(d) forbids registration of a mark if its use is prohibited under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. That legislation prohibits the improper use of certain emblems and names for professional and commercial purposes.<\/p>\n
Disclaimer<\/h2>\n
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This post discusses Section 9(2) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, examining key grounds for refusing trademark registration in India. It covers deception, religious susceptibilities, obscenity, and legal prohibitions in trademark law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":96,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[6865,6866,3501,6864,6867,6863,5378,105],"class_list":["post-13726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-trademarks","tag-absolute-grounds","tag-emblems-and-names","tag-grounds-for-refusal","tag-india-ip-law","tag-religious-susceptibilities","tag-section-9-trade-marks-act","tag-trademark-objection","tag-trademark-registration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13726"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149706,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726\/revisions\/149706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}