Trademark monitoring is a tedious process and consumes a lot of time. Every country has a trademark registry which contains records of trademark applications which are registered, pending before it which are normally called Trademark Journals. Every week on a certain day, the respective registry publishes trademark journal online. You can download the Journal from a particular website and compare new published mark with your already registered mark.

Trademark monitoring is search conducted on database to find a confusingly similar mark which is applied for registration. The purpose is to file timely third party objections and take appropriate action against the infringers. Trademark registration is only the first step in the effective use of the chosen brand, company or a product name, but to protect rights in a mark, you need to “police” the mark, otherwise you risk of losing your rights.

Trademark registry is only responsible for accessing application and registering the mark when it reviews a trademark application. But once a trademark is registered it is the duty of the registrant to keep an eye on all new marks which are before the registry for registration to check similarity of mark. It is a process of identifying infringement or misuse of your duly registered trademark.

Ideally, trademark monitoring is done on the relevant trademark database of a particular nation, but it can be done on an international level also. Common law search- a random search on Google and social media sites is not adequate to decide whether a mark is similar to your mark or services, as there are chances that those marks which are before registry might not be in use and thus, no information regarding the same can be found over the internet.

As trademark monitoring is done to keep an eye on the new, confusingly similar mark pending registration, it is done after your mark gets registered. Any search done during the process of a trademark registration is not trademark monitoring. Thus, it is done after you complete your trademark registration process.

There is no specific time period provided by the statute for conducting trademark monitoring, but it is advisable to detect the infringement and misuse as early as possible. The more time and money your competitor spends on an infringing trademark, the more difficult it would be to stop him from using your reputed trademark. Moreover, if you let the other person use your well-reputed trademark, you might be then estopped from getting certain remedies provided by the Act.

Ignorance of a similar trademark for similar good/services can dilute your inherent distinctive trademark. By trademark monitoring you can protect the uniqueness of your trademark and stop others from using the mark. An opposition taken in timely manner can save your future time and money. If you don’t stop the other person from misusing the mark, consumers might associate the new mark with your registered mark, which may cause loss, harm to your business as well as reputation and goodwill.

Once you have found out that there is a similar mark pending registration before the registry of trademarks, you can file an opposition before the relevant registry for cancellation of the mark or if the registrar has accepted and granted registration, you can request registrar to remove a mark wrongfully remaining on register and cancel the registration.

The relevant time period for filing an opposition proceeding may change from country to country, but normally it goes from 30 to 120 days from the date of mark’s publication in the Trademark Journal.

Trademark monitoring is conducted after the trademark has been registered to check whether any same/ similar mark is before the registrar for registration. While normally trademark search is done at the initial stage of the trademark registration to see whether there is already a similar mark registered or pending for registration for the same/ similar class of goods and services. The process for finding a same/ similar mark is identical in both the cases, but it depends on what stage of the trademark registration search is done. If search is done to check whether a mark is already registered or not i.e. in the initial period of the proceedings, it is called trademark search, while if it is done to check whether a confusingly similar mark is pending before the registrar, i.e after the registration is done, is called trademark monitoring.