Kinds of Trademarks: Registered and Unregistered, Conventional and Non-conventional

The Mumbai dabbawalas have a recognised coding system, Basmati rice is sold under assurance of its origin and quality, a bank offers its services under a brand, and a famous cola sold in every shop in the city is recognised even by people who never buy it. All of these are marks, but they do different jobs and the law treats them differently. Before you can say whether a mark is protected, you need to know what kind of mark it is.

In two minutes

The Trade Marks Act 1999 recognises ordinary trade marks and service marks, collective marks, certification marks and well-known marks; it protects marks that are registered by infringement action and those that are unregistered through passing off, and its definition is wide enough to cover non-conventional marks such as shapes, packaging and colour combinations.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Intellectual Property Laws on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.