Assignment of a trademark means to transfer the owner’s right in a trademark to another person. Trademark assignment is a process of transferring the rights of an Intellectual property to sell, license or transfer the owned intellectual property from one person to other. In short, Assignment is a process in which ownership of the trademark is passed from one person to another with or without full rights.
1. Complete Assignment :The transfers of all the rights in the trademark to another person.
2. Partial Assignment: The transfers of rights in the trademark with respect to only specific services or goods to another person.
3. Assignment with Goodwill of Business: The transfer of all the rights, entitlements and values associated with a trademark to another person which allows the other person to use the trademark for all classes of goods or services, including the goods or services which were already in use.
4. Assignment without the Goodwill of Business: The transfer of the rights, entitlements and values associated with a trademark to another person which allows the other person to use the trademark for all classes of goods or services, excluding the goods or services which were already in use.
The assignor or assignee, or both, can make a joint request to register the assignment by filing an application of a trademark assignment in Form TM-P to the register of trademarks.
The trademark assignment enables the trademark proprietor to encash the value of his/her his investment, time and hard work.
The assignee obtains the rights of an already established brand due to trademark assignment and therefore he/she would not have to work on brand building.
The trademark assignment helps both the parties to expand their respective businesses.
The trademark assignment agreement enables both the parties to establish their legal rights in case of any dispute.
Trademark | Patent | Copyright | |
What can be protected? | Product, Service, Word, Device, Collective Mark, Numbers, Certification Mark, Packaging, Shape, Colour, Pattern, Sound, Symbol, Slogan, Tag line. | Inventions, Product or Process. | Books, articles, music, photography, sculptures, dances, sound recordings, motion films etc. |
Eligibility | Distinctiveness and Uniqueness. | Novel, Unique and Industrial applicability. | Unique and Original work |
Validity | 10 years | 20 years | Author’s lifetime + 60 years. |