region notes
Service Mark Registrable in India!
After many years of waiting, the 1999 legislation providing for the registration of service marks was implemented 15 September 2003. This will make it much easier for service providers in many industries to enter the rapidly growing Indian market.
Services include:
* Hotels & Restaurants
* Banking, Insurance & other Financial Services
* Computer & Telecommunications Services
* Health Care
The Indian Trade Marks Registry's procedures have been greatly improved and the processing of new applications will be up to international standards.
Direct Filing Countries
The following countries allow direct filing:
Brunei
Cambodia
Hong Kong
Laos
Malaysia
Maldives
Myanmar (Burma)
Singapore
Cautionary Notice Countries
A number of countries have not adopted set governmental procedures for intellectual property rights, particularly with regard to trademark registration. In those countries, advertisement in the major daily publication provides applicants with necessary rights. The Cautionary Notice countries in the region:
Maldives
Former British Colonies
Former British colonies are frequently classified together because they share intellectual propery protection procedures. Many also share requirements for the extension of U.K. IP rights. Former British colonies in the region:
India
The trends in Asian intellectual property tend to vary by region. In Central Asia, intellectual property systems have only recently become widely used, though protection there is often quite expensive.
Many of the South Asian nations have large, well-developed intellectual property systems, which retain traces of their British origins. Most of these nations have been expanding their intellectual property protection in recent years.
Southeast Asia is an amalgam of former British, French and Dutch colonies, yielding a wide variety of legal systems. Some, like Myanmar, rely exclusively on cautionary notices, while others have worked in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to harmonize and upgrade intellectual property protection.
Some of the Pacific Rim countries of the Far East -- like Japan -- have well-developed intellectual property systems. Others, however, like China, have only recently developed and begun utilization of the intellectual property systems. This development, however, has been extremely rapid and well-used.