How to Oppose a Trademark?

The process of trademark opposition begins when the mark is opposed by a third-party when they consider your mark closely similar to theirs. The response to trademark opposition and the evidence will ultimately decide if the mark gets registered or not.

Trademark office publishes all the approved trademark in its official gazette for any possible opposition that could be filed with the trademark office. Trademark applicants that have access to the gazette and check it regularly to monitor the registration of the mark or subscribe for trademark monitoring services commonly object to the registration of a mark that they think is similar to theirs.

Who Can Oppose Trademark?

Trademark can be opposed by any person or company that has a real or legitimate interest in the registration of the mark i.e the person opposing the mark should have a real or direct interest in the registration of the mark that is being opposed.

The opposer has to show that he owns a trademark that is confusingly similar to theirs and hence might damage the status of the brand if the mark is registered.

When Can you Oppose a Trademark?

If you find any of the advertised trademarks to be violating any previously registered trademark on any of the relative or absolute grounds you can oppose that trademark application in front of the registrar and not directly in front of the court or IPAB (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY APPELLATE BOARD).

Reasons or Grounds for Trademark Opposition?

A trademark opposition can be filed for various reasons but the common grounds have been listed below:

• The mark seeking registration is descriptive in nature for the goods and services it is being registered.
• The mark is confusingly similar to the mark that has been registered before or has filed an application before the mark being opposed.
• The mark has been abandoned.
• The mark is geographically descriptive 

Procedure for filing Opposition

Following is the Procedure if You Oppose a Trademark:

• For filing opposition, the TM-O form should be filled with the prescribed fees of Rs-2500/-


• An Opposer (plaintiff) can raise either absolute ground like fraud, bad faith, functionality, etc. or on relative grounds namely likelihood of confusion, trade name use, etc. in an opposition proceeding.


• If the opposition is successful, the registration of the trademark will be refused. If it fails, it will be registered.


• During the opposition proceedings, more preference is given to the public point of view than the point of view of the parties