Trademark

Know about Formality Check Fail in Trademark status

calendar31 Oct, 2020
timeReading Time: 4 Minutes
Formality Check Fail in Trademark status

In today’s competitive world of business, people still can carry on successful businesses backed up with effective strategy. Many people are involved in similar type of business, which results in increased competition. Due to similar products are available in market it creates confusion amongst the buyers. Some people now-a-days started selling fake products therefore it created the need for a trademark registration. A trademark helps the buyer to ascertain the authenticity of the product and its true seller. However, it is necessary to file correct trademark application to avoid status being to “formality check fail”.

What is “Formality Check Fail” in Trademark application filing?

In the Trademark status ‘Formality Check Fail’ is a stage where the registrar will examine an application at the preliminary level. Here the registrar at ministry will check the basic information filled in the application and documents attached along with an application. It will further verify whether all the information is filed correctly or not. It also checks the type of application made and under what class it has to be filed. In case the ministry finds any defects in an application then the status of a trademark application will turn into status as “Formality Check Fail”.

Reply by an applicant against “Formality check fail”

If an application is at the stage of Formality check fail then a reply has to be filed within 30 days from receipt of this status. The Ministry requires a reply from an applicant and all corrections must be duly made in an application within a specified period of time; otherwise, the Ministry may order to abandon the trademark application.

What is Formality check pass?

There are two stages associated to check the status where the application shall be marked as “Formality check pass”. Those are as follows:-

  1. No deficiency found in an trademark application
  2. Reply is filed to the “formality check fail”

This stage will proceed and clears the application to enter into a next stage. This process may take 7-10 working days.

Read our article:Understand briefly about Timeline for Trademark Registration Process in India

Reasons Why “Formality Check” is in Trademark Registration Process

Formality checks fail because of the following reasons:-

Trademark Registration Process

Inappropriate Category

At the time of filing an application, the individual require to select a correct category under which an application will be filed. The categories are of four parts which are:

  • Individual/Sole Proprietor
  • Small Enterprise
  • Start-up
  • Others

Therefore, in case a proper category is not selected then an application will come under the status to the formality check fail.

Inappropriate Class

There are 45 classes that have been allocated for all goods and services for trademark registration. The correct class needs to be selected at the time of filing a trademark application. In case if wrong class is chosen, the trademark application will become invalid and the status of an application will change to formality check fail.

Inappropriate products or service description

In an application, it is important to provide description of goods or services in which an individual wants to get registered. The description must be in accordance to the classification mentioned in the 45 class. Where a selected class, and its corresponding description, does not match, an application might show “formality check fail” status.

Inappropriate documents

The Trademark Registration Procedure can be stretched down if all the required documents are not submitted by an applicant. There are few relevant documents needs to be attached while applying for the trademark application, such as power of attorney, affidavit, and proofs for claiming user date, supporting documents for claiming a rebate on application fees, start-ups or MSME certificate, etc. Sometimes the uploaded documents can get corrupted so the examiner fails to open and view them. In such cases the examiner marks an application of trademark status as “formality check fail” and asks for submitting the documents again.

Inappropriate Information

The information in an application has to be filled properly, correctly and as required. For example, translation and transliteration will be provided if the brand name is in a language other than English or Hindi. The name, address and other details of the applicant must exactly same in the translated document. The user data must be mentioned properly, description of the image, etc.

Brand name and logo are different

If a logo, and brand name, is different from one another and also the words stated in a logo does not match with a brand name, then the registry marks the status as ‘Formality check fail’. Therefore, both the logo as well as the brand has to correlate with each other.

Notice for “Formality Check Fail”

The ministry would issue a notice for Formality check fail along with reasons issuing the same. The individual is required to file the reply within 30 days from the date of receiving of the notice. Ministry[1] shall mark an application as abandoned when a response is not received within the specified period.  An individual can file a Formality check from the tab “miscellaneous reply” by selecting “reply to formality check (MIS-F)” and providing an application number. If the mentioned specifically “TM-M”, then the individual is required to file that form. If the ministry is satisfied with the reply, then it would process the application for the next stage. When the reply is not satisfactory then ministry might again mark the status as “Formality Check Fail”.

Conclusion

One can avoid the stage of formality check by filling accurate information in online trademark application. Hence, for smooth process the trademark one can file with the help of professionals at Corpbiz. It is simple to file a reply for the formality check fail by clearing the issues raised by a ministry.

Read our article:Can Trademark Registration Impact Your Business? Let’s Figure it Out!

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