Can director apply for trademark in individual name?

662 votes

Dear Sir,

In reference to your query please note that there are 2 aspects to the aforesaid query of yours
Since you have stated that the trademark is registered in the name of the company already therefore, the same trademark cannot be registered and moreover the registry will raise an obJection under section 11 of the TM Act.

Whereas the second aspect of your querry is concerned yes a private director can file for a trademark registration but i would advise you not to file an application which is similar to an already registered mark otherwise an infringement action or a passing off action will be brought against you.

I hope i have satisfactorily answered your concerns and in case of any further clarifications please do not hesitate to revert.

Regards,
Vaibhav Singh

Advocate Vaibhav Singh LawRato

541 votes

Hi, in the narrow conspectus of facts shared by you it appears that the director cannot get a trademark already registered under the limited company in his name. A director owes fiduciary duty to the company, therefore no such application is maintainable in law.

Advocate Shreyans Singhvi LawRato

547 votes

If a trademark is already registered in the name of company in the trademark registry, then without proper assignment or transfer of ownership of the trademark to the director, the director can't apply for registering in his own name.

A company in law is a separate legal entity having its own identity/existence independent from its directors or shareholders. A company's assets are company own and not of its directors/shareholders.

Trademark being an asset of the company belongs to the company exclusively and if registered with the Trademark Registry by the Company in Company's name, then director just by the virtue of being a director, can't apply for registering the trademark in his name without having the ownership of the trademark transferred to himself from the company after pay due consideration and in accordance with the law.

Advocate Divyanshu Srivastava LawRato