{"id":89230,"date":"2022-09-16T14:12:50","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T08:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/?p=89230"},"modified":"2025-07-04T11:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T05:58:41","slug":"well-known-trademarks-india-brand-protection-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/well-known-trademarks-india-brand-protection-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"How many of these brands do you know?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On August 15th<\/sup> 2022, the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (\u201cCGPDTM\u201d) notified a list of trademarks which would be added to the list of\u00a0Well-known Trade Marks in the Trade Marks Journal No: 2065<\/a>.\u00a0The Registrar of Trade Marks considered requests received under Rule 124 of the Trade Marks Rules 2017, which allows any trade mark owner to file a request in Form TM-M requesting the Registrar to declare their trademark as ‘well-known’. This list of well-known marks comprised 20 trademarks including a few famous brands such as Maggie, Paytm, Fevicol, Swiggy, Gillette, NOKIA, and so on.<\/p>\n

What are well-known trademarks?<\/h2>\n

According to Section 2(zg) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999<\/p>\n

\u201cwell-known trade mark\u201d in relation to any goods or services, means a mark which has become so to the substantial segment of the public which uses such goods or receives such services that the use of such mark in relation to other goods or services would be likely to be taken as indicating a connection in the course of trade or rendering of services between those goods or services and a person using the mark in relation to the first-mentioned goods or services.<\/em><\/p>\n

This section provides that a well-known trademark in relation to any goods or service refers to a mark which has transformed in such a way that a significant segment of the public relates the said mark to a particular product or service and that the use of such a mark by any other person for any similar or other unrelated goods or service, is likely to indicate a connection with the former.<\/p>\n

In simple words, if you spot a \u2018Maggie smart electric kettle\u2019 in the market tomorrow you would likely buy it thinking it is being sold by the same company which makes Maggie Instant Noodles. To give another example, if a screen guard gets launched in the market under the name Fevicol you would buy it assuming it to be sold by the company which sells adhesives under the well-known brand name Fevicol. Such is the power wielded by a brand which comes under the umbrella of being listed as a well-known trademark. Not only that, once a mark gets recognised as well-known by the Office of GCPDTM the protection of the marks gets extended to goods and services across all classes.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Office of CGPDTM via a public notice dated May 22nd<\/sup> 2017 issued general guidelines with respect to well-known trademarks. These guidelines are available on the IP India Website\u00a0 at: https:\/\/ipindia.gov.in\/writereaddata\/Portal\/IPOtherNotice\/1_31_1\/Public-Notice.pdf<\/a> (last visited on September 13th<\/sup>, 2022)<\/p>\n

The complete list of existing well-known trademarks can be accessed at: https:\/\/ipindia.gov.in\/writereaddata\/Portal\/Images\/pdf\/well-known-trademaks-updated-newone.pdf<\/a> (last visited on September 14th<\/sup>, 2022)<\/p>\n

What are the benefits of having a well-known trademark?<\/h2>\n

There are a plethora of benefits of having a brand which the Indian IP Office recognises as a well-known trademark, such as:<\/p>\n