Trademark Assignment

There are different types of trademark assignment that are accepted in India. The assignment agreement is drafted by the parties based on the need & requirements.

The types of assignment are as follows -

Complete Trademark Assignment

In case of Complete Trademark Assignment, all the owner rights of registered trademark are assigned to a third party. Then, assignee becomes the sole owner of the trademark and enjoys all the rights of the original trademark owner. After becoming the owner, transferee has the full right to assign, trade & market and can also stop others for using it without authorization.

Partial Trademark Assignment

In case of Partial Trademark Assignment, the ownership is transferred to other party but owner of the trademark restricts them to use this assigned trademark only for certain products or services as decided by the parties in the trademark assignment agreement. For ex – If the trademark owner mention in the agreement that his trademark can only be used for food products, than the assignee can use the trademark for only food products suitable for human consumption and not for any other goods or services.

Both complete and partial assignment can be made with the assignment of goodwill or without goodwill –

Trademark Assignment with Goodwill

When a Trademark Assignment with Goodwill, trademark rights & values associated with it are given by the assignor to the assignee to only use the trademark for the goods or services already sold by him. For ex – Vaibhav is the owner of a trademark deals in manufacturing and selling of jackets and can assign the rights of his trademark to the assignee to use the same product for manufacturing and selling i.e. jackets.

Trademark Assignment without Goodwill

In case of Trademark Assignment without Goodwill, the assignor can restrict the assignee on the products already used by him. In this case, assignor and assignee both can use the trademark but for distinct goods & services. For ex – Rahul is the owner of a trademark deals in manufacturing and selling of jackets and decides to assign it without goodwill. In such a case, assignee can use the trademark for any other product other than jackets.