Scope of Trademark Attorneys, Courses, Jobs & Salary

Trademark is a design or logo which identifies the products and services of one company to another. To maintain the identity of a product, it is necessary to keep a trademark from being copied. After a registered trademark, one cannot use the same name or a logo of another company. After every 10 years, one can renew the trademark. To give advice in this field, there are trained and qualified people known as Trademark Attorney or Trademark Agents. 

• To become a Trademark Attorney, the person must be an advocate in State Bar Council. 
• The minimum educational qualification to become an advocate is LLB from any recognized Law School. 
• A person who has passed 10+2 examination can be eligible for a 5 years LLB course and a person who has done his graduation are eligible for 3 years LLB course provided he cleared his Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).
• It has questions from the topics like Legal Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, English including Comprehension, General Knowledge/Current Affairs, and Elementary Mathematics. 
• The attorney must have to clear the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) Trademark Law Bar Exam.  
• If anybody wants to become a Trademark Agents, that is a non-lawyer professional who are qualified to perform trademark services, then he must have to clear and qualify the examination of Trademark Agents Examination under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. 
• Before that he must be a graduate from any recognized university in India or must have an equivalent qualification. 
• After they clear their examination the registrar will publish the names of the qualified candidates in the register of trademark agents along with their personal details like residence address, address of the principal place of business, their nationality, qualification and date of registration. 
• The registrar then publishes them in the Journal which is a code of conduct for registered trademark agent. 
   

• There are several job opportunities available for Trademark Attorneys and Trademark Agents in Law Firms or Corporate Organizations. 
• In Law firms they mainly deal with intellectual properties like trademark, patents, copyrights, industrial design and geographical indications. 
• Multinational companies employ trademark attorneys to assist and guide them in the matters related to trademarks of the company. 
   

To become a Trademark Attorney/Agent following skills are required. They are as follows:

• The person must have good interpersonal skills
• He must be good in managing his team, client and case simultaneously
• Good analytical skills
• The person should have an excellent written and verbal communication skills
• He should be good in finding solutions and implementation to several problems and requests, etc. 
   

• There are few online and distance learning options that are available for the interested candidate who wants to pursue their careers as a Trademark Attorney/Agent.  
• To become an advocate the person must have done his LLB from any recognized university in India. If a person is interested to do a course in LLB through Online or Distance Learning then there are few institutes who offer the same. Among them Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning is the main. 
• After this, Institutes like,Indian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorney (IIPTA), Delhi and Indian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorney (IIPTA), Hyderabad who offer online courses in Trademark Attorney.
   

• Trademark attorney/agents have vast career scope, therefore, they are required to know everything regarding trademark law, that includes instructions and guidance for trademark law. 
• As the trademark filing is increasing day by day in India, the demand for trademark attorney is getting higher. They can work in Law firms or Corporate Organizations. 
• A qualified Trademark Attorney can also become an in-house advisor for various organizations or start his<
  • An advocate who has a membership in State Bar Council can practice as a Trademark Attorney before the Trade Mark Registry of India. 
  • They must have cleared the examination and registered to practice trademark laws before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) of the Trademark office and also must be a registered practicing lawyer in any of the States in India

  Trademark Agents

  Trademark Attorneys and Trademark Agents does similar work except Trademark Agents don’t represent their client in Courts like that of Trademark Agents. They are non-lawyer professional who are qualified to do the work of Trademark services. They have to pass Trademark Agents Examination to become a Trademark Agent. The eligibility criteria  of a Trademark Agent are as follows:

  • The person must be a citizen of India
  • Must have completed the age of 21 years
  • Must be a graduate from any recognized university of India
  • The candidate must have passed the Trademark Agent Examination conducted by the Trademark Registry
     

  Trademark Attorneys are legal practitioners and they are specialized in trademark matterslike the process of registration, trademark protection and to prevent it from any fraud. They give information to their client about their validity. A Trademark Attorney has to deal will the legal process that are involved, like registration of the trademark or to appear in court cases in the matters related to trademark.  Other duties that a Trademark Attorney does are as follows:

  • He helps the companies to select a new trademark logo for their business
  • To ensure that the chosen trademark has not been registered or not used by any other person for their business
  • To give legal support to their clients like help them in drafting and filing of applicationsfor registration and legal support
  • To communicate or do the legal talking with Indian Trademark Registry on behalf of their client for the registration procedure
  • To ensure that the registration has been done properly and in a correct legal format
  • In case, any body does trademark violation, then Trademark Attorney helps their client in sending legal letters to that person. 
     
  • Trademark agents can get good salaries as their work totally depends upon their services. 
  • They can charge fees for filing and drafting for registration and for any cases related to trademarks. 
  • As they represent their clients in Court, they can negotiate or charge high fees or contracts. In India, the salary of Trademark attorney varies fromapproxRs. 3lacs to approx. Rs.15 lacks per annum.