The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), Mumbai has issued a public notice dated March 28, 2022, regarding filing of the oppositions against trade marks which are published in Trade Mark Journal from November 18, 2019 to January 24, 2022.
The public notice is issued in compliance with the direction given by Hon’ble Delhi High Court in the case of W.P. (C) – IPD 4/2022 & CM 27/2022 & others vide order dated March 21, 2022. The public notice notifies that any person who wishes to file an opposition against any trade mark published from Journal No. 1928 dated November 18, 2019 to Journal no. 2036 dated January 24, 2022 (both inclusive, irrespective of status of application whether registered/ opposed/ accepted & advertised/ advertised before acceptance) may submit the same in respective jurisdictional office of the Trade Mark Registry either through hand or post so as to reach to Registry office on or before May 30, 2022.
This notice is basically issued to enable the parties to file oppositions against the trade marks which were advertised during the Covid-19 pandemic, and during the four month limitation period would have expired after March 15, 2020. In such cases, the limitation period in terms of the orders of the Supreme Court on extension of the limitation period in view of the pandemic dated March 23, 2020, April 27, 2021 and January 10, 2022[1] shall be extended for filing oppositions to the said applications, until the expiry of 90 days from March 01, 2022, i.e., till May 30, 2022.
[1] https://ssrana.in/articles/supreme-court-extends-period-of-limitation-covid/ (dated March 30, 2020);
https://ssrana.in/articles/supreme-court-extends-limitation-period/ (dated May 3, 2021); https://ssrana.in/articles/extension-limitation-period-supreme-court-january10/ (dated January 13, 2022)