The Indian Trade Mark Office, which is responsible for managing the Indian Trade Marks Register, recently admitted it had mislaid 44,404 of its trade mark files.
Investigation
The case of the missing trade mark files first came to light in 2009, when HalidramPvt. Ltd applied to view a number of files it needed to settle a trade mark dispute. When the Trade Mark Office couldn’t locate them, or explain why, the court ordered an investigation.
Decentralised in 2006
The investigation has now established that over 44,000 files are missing. They are thought to have been mislaid during a decentralisation drive at the Trade Mark Office in 2006.
Trade mark owners must send in copies
The Trade Mark Office is now doing its best to put things right. A list giving the numbers of all the missing registrations has been published and all the owners of the ‘lost’ trade marks are being asked to send in their own copies of the files so they can be digitalised.
