Expert: Nyall Engfield - 3/17/2010

Question
Hi, I can't find anyone who fits to my question, but you seem like the right type. I am starting an online business which majority of my traffic will be coming from India, but I live in Canada so I will be managing it here. I want to protect my logo and slogan so I'm going register a trademark here in Canada, but will it protect me internationally. If not, do you think I'm gonna have to register a trademark in india to, where a lot of my traffic will be coming from?

Answer
A trade-mark registration only protects the mark in that country or region (for Europe). If you want to protect a mark in several countries, then you would have to file several marks, one in each country. If a significant proportion of your clientele is in Canada, it would be worthwhile to file for protection here. However, if you have no clientele in Canada and are consequently not using the mark here, I would not bother filing here since you will have to shown use of the mark within the first three years.

It is questionable whether you would be able to enforce trade-mark protection in India however; as to that you would have to inquire of an Indian trade-marks practitioner.