Who is the owner of a trademark ?

Any person who has registered under the Trade Mark Act 1999 ,any employee under whose employment the trade mark was created.however sometimes registration is not particularly necessary for any one user who was using the trade mark from before the registered user of the trade mark.
 

The general rule is that the person or legal entity that uses a trademark owns the trademark. The owner of a trademark is the person or entity (usually a corporation or other business) that uses the mark in commerce to identify the product or service it sells and is registered under Trademark Act,1999.

A Trademark owner can allow others to use its trademark in commerce while still retaining ownership by entering into a license agreement with that person or entity. A trademark license is an agreement between the trademark owner (the “licensor”) and another person (the “licensee”) in which the licensor permits the licensee to use the licensor's trademark. Pls. note that licensee does not own a trademark . At a minimum, a typical license agreement will have provisions permitting the licensor to control the quality of the goods or services produced by the licensee under the licensed trademark, and also include provisions governing the term (length) of the license agreement, the royalty rate paid by the licensee to the licensor for use of the trademark, and whether the licensee has exclusive rights to use the trademark.  

I agree with Shreya......well explained.

Trademark Registration is not compulsory in India. However, if you want to license your brand / trademark it is very much essential to have your brand name / trademark registered.

Licensing is a very important business strategy used in Franchising. Where the owner of trademark assigns a license for a certain period.

If a Trademark is not registered there are chances licensee claims the ownership.

For more details, Contact

Nagaraj

Corporate, Commercial & IP Lawyer

IP Lex Global Services

Email: nagaraja_bs@iplexglobal.in

www.iplexglobal.in