The office of the Controller General (CGPDTM) has announced that it will be organizing a “physical” meeting in its Mumbai office on February 1, to listen to the grievances of stakeholders regarding the TMR portal and other issues concerning the processing of trademark applications. The notice for this meeting was passed on January 29 i.e. just 2 days before the proposed meeting and it does not state if the meeting can be attended virtually. (Hopefully, soon similar meetings will be organized in other offices too!) Furthermore, the interested stakeholders and IP practitioners will have to “reserve” their participation and the speaking slot by sending a mail to cgoffice[dash]mh[at]nic[dot]in by 2:00 PM on 31.01.2024 (i.e. tomorrow!).
This notice has been issued after more than three months since the unavailability of the trademark public search and e-register portal during working hours, and almost one month after the Delhi High Court order directing the office of CGPDTM to file a response stating the steps taken to resolve the issue. However, it is unclear if by TMR portal the notice means the TM e-register and the public search features of the IPIndia website or if it is something else. Anyways, important details for the interested readers are reproduced below :-
Venue: Patents/Designs/Trade Marks/Geographical Indications,
Boudhik Sampada Bhavan,
Antop Hill, S.M. Road, Mumbai-400037
Date and Time: 01.02.2024 (Thursday) at 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Last date to Register: 31.01.2024 (Wednesday) by 2:00 PM
The objective of CGPDTM meeting was clarified effectively before meeting and accordingly the public notice is issued. The same is accessible over a given link.
https://www.ipindia.gov.in/newsdetail.htm?948/
The meeting was also extended to discussion (openly in a close door meeting) the other operational issues in TM administration.
Dear Anon,
Thank you for sharing this notice. Really a big relief for all the TM practitioners and others who rely on the TM public search and E-register feature. Also, thank you very much for the update about the meeting. Makes one wonder if discussions are actually “open” behind “closed” door?! Hopefully, the minutes of the meetings will be published by the office soon, especially considering the extremely short amount of time given to register for this in-person meeting!!