Trademarks

If the application is not objected to and nobody opposes it, registration typically completes in 12 to 18 months. Objections or opposition can extend this to 24–36 months. Importantly, your rights date back to the filing date, and you can use the ™ symbol and enforce against copycats from day one.

™ can be used the moment your application is filed and simply signals that you claim rights in the mark. ® may only be used after the registration certificate is issued. Using ® on an unregistered mark is an offence under Section 107 of the Trade Marks Act.

No. It finds exact matches in one class. Refusals overwhelmingly come from phonetic similarity, visual similarity, transliterations and marks in adjacent classes — none of which that tool surfaces reliably.

A quick availability signal takes about 24 hours. A full clearance report with a written risk opinion takes two to three working days.

Thirty days from the date the examination report is issued. Missing this deadline risks the application being treated as abandoned under Section 132. Check the report date carefully — the clock starts from issue, not from when you noticed it.

No. An objection is the examiner raising a concern that you have a right to answer. A substantial proportion of objected applications proceed to registration after a properly drafted reply.

Four months from the date the mark is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal. This period cannot be extended. Once it closes without opposition, the mark proceeds to registration.

Your application is deemed abandoned under Section 21(2). The two-month deadline for filing a counter-statement is strict and the Registry has very limited discretion to condone delay. This is the single most common way good applications are lost.