Filing for a trademark is a crucial step in protecting intellectual property and ensuring brand recognition and legal rights. However, not all trademark applications result in successful registrations. When individuals or businesses file for a trademark but do not obtain adequate registration, they face a series of challenges that can impact their brand identity, legal standing, and market presence. In this article, we delve into the challenges that people encounter after filing for a trademark but falling short of obtaining full registration. The Importance of Trademarks Trademarks play a pivotal role in distinguishing products and services in the market, enabling consumers to identify and connect with brands they trust. A registered trademark grants its owner exclusive rights to use the mark for the designated goods or services, thus preventing unauthorized use by competitors. Mudit Dadhich, IPR expert at MarkmyBrand.com lists down seven major challenges faced by businesses when trademark is filed but not adequately registered:

Parents can decide to give away their wealth to one of their children instead of dividing it among them. But can a child who has not been given any asset by a parent in the will be a witness in the testament? According to legal experts, succession laws do not restrict a legal heir from being a witness in the will. Here it is important to note that succession laws in India are religion specific. Hence, rules that apply for Hindu will be different for a Muslim. Heena Chheda, Partner, Economic Laws Practice, says, "In accordance with the provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, it's permissible for a beneficiary mentioned in a Will created by a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain to serve as a witness. Moreover, any bequest directed towards such a witness or their spouse will remain legally valid."

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Dam Safety Bill, 2019, after a heated debate with many opposition members demanding that the bill be sent to a select committee. The opposition members also suggested many amendments which were rejected. The Dam Safety Bill, 2019, passed by the Lok Sabha on August 2, 2019, was cleared by the Rajya Sabha passed with two official amendments through a voice vote. One of the amendments relates to the change in the year mentioned in the bill title from 2019 to 2021. The bill will now go back to the Lok Sabha as the Rajya Sabha has made amendments to it.

The NHAI ended up paying Rs 4.5 crore to a private firm after it held back on clearing their bills for Rs 20 lakh about nine years back, a TOI report has said. The NHAI made the final payment in December 2019, documents accessed by TOI showed, after the firm won an arbitration award and two cases in the Delhi High Court. The private firm, registered under the MSME Development Act (2006), managed to extract the big sum as it was entitled to a 27 per cent interest during the period. Nitin Gadkari, Union transport and highways minister, said his ministry "will investigate the matter".

Several companies in the infrastructure, construction and other segments unable to promptly recover disputed amounts from government-sector firms despite having arbitral awards in their favour could soon be laying hands on parts of such funds running into hundreds of crores, with the Supreme Court striking down a recently instituted regime of automatic stay on the bulk of the existing arbitral awards, when challenged. The relief could also enable some firms in the insolvency arena to get better valuation for themselves and for others to avoid being dragged by their lenders to the bankruptcy courts.

Flooded with concerns from media companies on the recent imposition of a 26 per cent limit on foreign direct investment (FDI) through the government route in the digital media sector, the Centre is looking at coming up with a clear decision on how such companies that already have a foreign share holding above 26 per cent should be treated. “The DPIIT has received numerous queries on the implications of the FDI limit of 26 per cent in digital media. It is closely examining its options regarding the fate of the companies that already have FDI greater than 26 per cent. Most other concerns need only some clarifications and explanations,” an official told BusinessLine. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has sent its comments on the matter to the DPIIT which is now being examined by it. “A decision could be taken based on a common understanding of the matter and in consultation with other key Ministries such as Finance,” the official said.

The cabinet significantly eased entry barriers in the state-dominated petrol pump business to encourage competition from Indian and foreign firms. It also approved a revival package for state-owned telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) that aims at the eventual merger of the withering former monopolies. It also raised the minimum support price (MSP) for rabi, or winter sown, crops by 5-7% to increase rural incomes by giving a higher assured price at which state agencies buy crops such as wheat, pulses and oilseeds. The cabinet also approved a bill to regularise unauthorised Delhi colonies on more than 175 sq km, which will give 4 million people better civic amenities and ownership rights. It scrapped the 17-year-old entry condition of investing Rs 2,000 crore in the oil sector to be eligible for setting up petrol pumps. Any company, including those not in the oil sector, with a net worth of Rs 250 crore can retail fuel in the country, which is one of the biggest and fastest-growing oil consumers in the world.

The government has begun work on redrafting the proposed national industrial policy, keen to offer benefits in addition to what states provide. “We don’t want to replicate the state models but we have decided to engage in wider consultations,” said a senior official aware of the plans. The government has already constituted a working group to prepare the contours of the new industrial policy to make India a manufacturing hub. The working group, comprising members from seven state governments, the Centre and domestic industry, will consult stakeholders, identify pain points of industry and develop actionable solutions for short and medium term and also delineate the role for the private sector in achieving the national targets. The move comes even as India’s industrial production shrank 1.1% in August, the worst performance in almost seven years, reflecting a slump in demand and highlighting the challenge faced by the government in reversing the economic slowdown.

The Cabinet has approved a new process of strategic disinvestment with a view to expediting privatisation of select PSUs, officials said on Friday. The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at its meeting on Thursday evening approved the new policy under which the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance has been made the nodal department for the strategic stake sale. This was done with a view to streamlining and speeding up the process, reducing the role of administrative ministries which often used to place hurdles in the path of major stake sales, officials said.

The labour ministry will rework the draft social security code again, after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) pulled it up over the proposals that did not meet the objective of unifying all social security benefits under an umbrella scheme, a government official said. The ministry’s third draft does not align with the government's intent to move towards universal social security, the official said. The PMO is unhappy as the concept of “universal” was missing in the draft code, the official told ET. “The labour ministry has formed a committee to rework the code following a directive from the PMO.” The third draft presented by the Santosh Kumar Gangwar-led labour ministry has proposed that the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) be subsumed under a central body with a corporate-like structure.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have once again expressed their opposition regarding the proposed data protection norms that mandate local storage of financial data and put restrictions on the cross-border movement. Investors are mainly concerned over the categorisation of all financial data as sensitive data in the proposed norms. The Sections 40 and 41 of the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) outline restrictions and requirements regarding location and transfer of personal and sensitive personal data. Apart from that, the Bill mandates that data that are termed critical shall only be processed in a server located in India. FPIs earlier also expressed their views when the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had been holding consultations with the industry regarding the PDPB last year. But as the MeitY has now started another round of consultations over non-personal data, investors are worried that it might create further problems.

Come September 30, your PAN number will become invalid if it has not been linked with Aadhaar. PAN is the 10-character alpha-numeric identity issued by the Income Tax Department, while Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). As on March 31, 2019, over 44.57 crore taxpayers had been allotted PAN; of this, nearly 98 per cent or 43.52 lakh were individual tax payers. As on date, more than 124.45 crore Aadhaar identity cards have been generated. The Supreme Court’s judgement on Aadhaar, has made it clear that if one has both Aadhaar and PAN, then linking them is mandatory. If the assessee does not hold an Aadhaar number, then PAN would not be considered invalid. However, if an assessee holds an Aadhaar number, it should be intimated to the Department.

In a bid to curb profiteering, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has proposed a few options to rationalise the trade margins on drugs to policy think tank Niti Aayog. One suggestion was to restrict trade margins at 43% on non-scheduled drugs. In a meeting held earlier this month with Niti Aayog, DoP also suggested that trade margin on all formulations and dosages be capped at 100%. Simultaneously, it also opined that lower priced medicines at Rs 2-5 per unit may be exempted from trade margin rationalisation. The Niti Aayog is weighing these options and is likely to take a decision soon, ET has learnt. To incorporate any of these options, amendments will have to be made to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing policy, 2012.

The government has eased the client-verification requirement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for overseas investors who want to put money in the depository receipts of Indian companies. Now, foreign investors do not need to complete any separate KYC (know your client) process as per Indian rules, and can buy depository receipts of Indian companies based on the proof of identity they have established with authorities in their country of origin, said a government notification issued last week. The decision is expected to make it easier for local companies to raise money overseas, said market experts. Depository receipts, such as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs), are instruments denominated in foreign currencies.

In a bid to corporatise social security agencies, the government on Wednesday released a draft code that seeks to revamp the structure of EPFO and ESIC, which would get CEOs for the first time. The draft provides for change in the constitution of Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), saying the two bodies would be "body corporate". At present, EPFO and ESIC work more like autonomous bodies run by trustees and board, respectively under the administrative control of Ministry of Labour & Employment. Both bodies were created by an Act of Parliament. Besides, it has been a precedent that the labour minister is appointed as chairman of EPFO central broad of trustees as well as ESIC board. Most of the time, the labour secretary has been vice-chairman of EPFO as well as ESIC in the absence of Minister of State for Labour. The draft code provides that the Centre would appoint chairman and vice chairman of the two bodies. Thus, the appointees could be other than the labour minister and labour secretary.

To bring further transparency in “public dealings and probity in public life”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday held that NGOs getting substantial funds directly or indirectly from the government fall within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. A Bench led by Justice Deepak Gupta in the case, DAV College Trust and Management Society vs Director of Public Instructions, said: “If NGOs or other bodies get substantial finance from the government, we find no reason why any citizen cannot ask for information to find out whether his/her money which has been given to an NGO or any other body is being used for the requisite purpose or not.” However, it said whether an NGO or body is substantially financed by the government is a question of fact which has to be determined on the facts of each case as there may be cases where the finance is more than 50% but still may not be called substantially financed.

India will soon start issuing unique numbers for landholdings as part of an exercise expected to bring transparency and end dubious land ownership. The rural development ministry has started work on assigning a standardised unique number for each surveyed plot, a senior government official said. The unique number will have details of the state, district or zilla, tehsil or taluka, block level and street information, wherever applicable, and information about the plot including size and ownership details. “This unique land parcel number could subsequently be linked to the Aadhaar and revenue court system,” the official told ET on condition of anonymity.

India and the 10-member bloc of South-East Asian nations have decided to review their free trade agreement (FTA) in goods that was signed in 2009. The decision comes at a time when Indian industry’s resistance to any sort of FTA without credible gains for it is on its peak, and a global trade war has threatened to drag down both economic and trade growth. While officials of both the sides will work out details in the coming days, the Indian industry has long complained of getting a raw deal from the Asean FTA. According to a joint statement, both India and Asean members have decided to constitute a joint committee to reexamine the FTA.

The government is contemplating a revamp of the Department of Commerce and certain incentive schemes that fall under it, as it aims at administrative easing to boost exports and domestic manufacturing. The commerce and industry ministry and finance ministry are discussing the idea of bringing the new exports incentives scheme — Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) — as well as the existing Advance Authorisation Scheme, within the remit of the drawback committee under the revenue department, said people aware of the matter. At present, the Advance Authorisation Scheme is with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), an arm of the commerce and industry ministry.

The government’s decision on 28 August to restrict foreign direct investment (FDI) in digital news media companies to 26% is likely to hit investment activity and may lead to a reconsideration of valuations, said industry observers and market participants. While the government’s decision is primarily aimed at original news content producers, news aggregators may get impacted, too. “The valuation of news aggregators depends on a number of factors, including revenue, traffic generated and growth, besides expansion plans. With FDI restricted, it would result in funding deficiency, and expansion may get hit. This would certainly hit valuation," said Atul Pandey, partner, Khaitan and Co.