Intellectual property is the firm’s primary practice area. Indian law recognises six categories of intellectual property — patents, trade marks, copyright, industrial designs, geographical indications and trade secrets — and each is governed by a different statute, administered by a different office, and lost in a different way.
The practical difficulty for a business in Kolkata is that these do not line up. A single product can carry a trade mark, a registered design, a patent and copyright at once, and the office with jurisdiction over each is in a different city. This page sets out the whole picture and links to the detailed page for each right.
Which office administers each right for a Kolkata business
- Trade marks
- Trade Marks Registry, Kolkata
- Patents
- Patent Office (Head Office), Kolkata
- Designs
- Design Wing, Patent Office, Kolkata — for the whole of India
- Copyright
- Copyright Office, New Delhi — a single national office
- Geographical indications
- Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai — a single national office
- Trade secrets
- No registry — protection is by contract and the action for breach of confidence
Every one of those rows is a different answer, and that is the single most useful thing to know before starting. The Trade Marks Registry divides the country five ways and the Patent Office four, on different lines. Designs, copyright and geographical indications each have one national office. Trade secrets have none at all.
For a business in Kolkata, trade marks and patents happen to go to offices in the same city, which is convenient but not the general position.
None of this depends on the applicant attending in person. All five registries file and prosecute electronically, and hearings are ordinarily by video conference. What does depend on location is litigation, and that is dealt with in the section on where disputes are heard below.
How the firm acts for a client in Kolkata
All five intellectual property registries file and prosecute electronically, and hearings before them are ordinarily held by video conference. The points below set out how the firm conducts a intellectual property matter for a client based in Kolkata.
Filings and responses for all five registrable rights are made through the CGPDTM and Copyright Office portals. Nothing about a Kolkata client’s file requires the advocate to be in Kolkata, or in the registry city.
The firm’s principal is a Registered Patent Agent with over ten years of experience in patent searching, filing and prosecution across life sciences, chemistry and mechanical domains, working with an associate whose practice covers IP prosecution, litigation and licensing.
Because one product can carry four different rights administered from four different offices, the firm’s engagements are usually portfolio-level rather than a single filing — deciding what to register, where, and in what order.
Where an infringement or revocation action requires appearance before a court in West Bengal, the firm associates local counsel who appears on the record, and continues to conduct the matter itself.
What the firm handles in intellectual property matters
- Searches — availability, patentability, prior art, freedom to operate, and design novelty
- Filing and prosecution of trade mark, patent, design, copyright and geographical indication applications
- Responses to examination reports, show-cause hearings and objections
- Opposition, rectification, cancellation and revocation proceedings
- Portfolio strategy — deciding which rights to seek for a product, and in what order
- Licensing, assignment and franchising agreements, and recordal on the register
- Confidentiality, non-disclosure and employee invention-assignment agreements
- Infringement and passing-off actions, cease-and-desist work, and takedown notices
- Renewal and maintenance of registered rights
- Coordination of international filings through associate agents abroad
The six rights compared
Each protects something different, for a different period, and is lost in a different way. Choosing between them is usually the first substantive decision in an IP engagement.
| Right | What it protects | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Trade mark | A sign that distinguishes goods or services — word, logo, shape, sound | Ten years, renewable indefinitely |
| Patent | A new invention — a product or process with an inventive step | Twenty years from filing |
| Copyright | Original expression — writing, art, music, film, software | Life of the author plus sixty years |
| Industrial design | The appearance of an article, judged by the eye | Ten years, extendable by five |
| Geographical indication | Goods whose qualities are attributable to a place of origin | Ten years, renewable indefinitely |
| Trade secret | Confidential information with commercial value | For as long as it stays secret |
Registration is compulsory for a design and for a geographical indication — without it there is no right at all. It is optional for copyright, which arises automatically, and for a trade mark, which can be protected unregistered through passing off. A trade secret cannot be registered on any terms.
The five mistakes that cost most
These recur across sectors and cities, and all five are avoidable at no cost if the sequence is right.
- Disclosing before filing. A patent needs worldwide novelty and a design must not have been published anywhere. A trade fair, a product page or a crowdfunding listing can destroy both. Trade marks and copyright are unaffected — but the ones that matter most are usually the two that are.
- Assuming payment transfers copyright. A contractor engaged under a contract for service owns what they create unless there is a written assignment under Section 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957. Logos, code and photographs paid for on invoice frequently do not belong to the business that paid.
- Relying on copyright for a product design. Under Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, copyright in a design capable of registration under the Designs Act, 2000 ceases after fifty industrial reproductions. A manufacturer who never registered the design has nothing left.
- Missing the request for examination on a patent. Examination is not automatic. If no request is filed under Section 11B within the prescribed period, the application is treated as withdrawn, and it cannot be revived.
- Registering the mark and never using it. A registration is liable to be removed under Section 47 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 for a continuous period of five years and three months of non-use.
How an application proceeds
- 01 Audit what exists
Identify what the business already owns — marks in use, inventions made, works created, designs applied, and confidential information held — and who owns each. Ownership gaps in commissioned work are usually found here.
- 02 Search before committing
Availability searches for marks, prior-art searches for inventions, and novelty searches for designs. A search does not guarantee registration, but it decides whether the spend is worth making and how the application should be framed.
- 03 Sequence the filings
Order matters. Anything requiring novelty — patents and designs — is filed before disclosure. Trade marks follow the commercial launch plan. Copyright can be registered at leisure, since the right already exists.
- 04 File and prosecute
Applications are filed at the office with jurisdiction for each right, and examination reports, hearings and oppositions are handled through to registration or grant.
- 05 Contract around the gaps
Assignments from founders, employees and contractors, confidentiality agreements, and licences — the parts of an IP position that no registry provides.
- 06 Maintain and enforce
Renewals, working statements and non-use exposure on one side; monitoring, cease-and-desist correspondence, opposition and infringement proceedings on the other.
Each right in detail for Kolkata
Each of the six has its own page setting out the office with jurisdiction, the procedure, the statutory fees and the forum for a dispute.
- Trade marks in Kolkata — the Trade Marks Registry, Kolkata, the TM-A process, opposition and renewal.
- Patents in Kolkata — the Patent Office (Head Office), Kolkata, provisional and complete specifications, examination and opposition.
- Copyright in Kolkata — the single national office, ownership and assignment, and the Section 62(2) forum rule.
- Industrial designs in Kolkata — examination at Kolkata, the novelty rule, and the fifty-article copyright trap.
- Geographical indications in Kolkata — the Chennai registry, who may apply, and authorised user registration.
- Trade secrets in Kolkata — no registry, and what Section 27 of the Contract Act allows a contract to do.
Links to each of these pages appear at the foot of this page.
Where an intellectual property dispute from Kolkata is heard
The Calcutta High Court exercises ordinary original civil jurisdiction, so an infringement or passing-off suit arising in Kolkata may be instituted before the High Court itself where the valuation exceeds the pecuniary limit fixed for the courts below. Below that limit it is filed before the Commercial Courts at Kolkata.
Two rights carry their own forum provision, which is worth knowing before choosing where to sue. Section 62(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957 and Section 66 of the Geographical Indications Act, 1999 both allow the suit to be brought where the plaintiff resides or carries on business, rather than where the defendant is. Trade mark, patent and design suits follow the ordinary rule under Section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, subject to Section 134 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, which contains a similar provision for registered marks.
Patent and design suits also migrate upward. Under Section 104 of the Patents Act, 1970 a counterclaim for revocation transfers the suit to the High Court, and Section 22(4) of the Designs Act, 2000 does the same where a cancellation ground is raised in defence. Since both defences are standard, contested patent and design matters generally end up before the High Court whatever their valuation.
Appeals from the Registrar of Trade Marks, the Controller of Patents and Designs and the Registrar of Copyrights all lie to the High Court, following the abolition of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board by the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021. An IP suit of a specified value is a commercial dispute under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
The Calcutta High Court has constituted an Intellectual Property Rights Division, its Rules having been notified by gazette notification dated 20 September 2024. It is the third High Court in India to adopt dedicated IPD rules, after Delhi and Madras, and it hears IP suits alongside appeals and rectification matters transferred from the former Intellectual Property Appellate Board.
Where intellectual property questions commonly arise in Kolkata
Kolkata is eastern India’s commercial centre, with a long-established engineering and heavy industry base, the national tea trade, leather and jute, and a substantial publishing and cultural economy. That shapes the intellectual property work that comes out of the city.
- Tea — the national centre of the tea trade, where marks sit alongside the Darjeeling geographical indication and the two systems must be kept carefully apart.
- Engineering and heavy industry — house marks for a long-established capital goods sector.
- Food and confectionery — regional sweets and packaged foods, a category with heavy imitation, and where Banglar Rasogolla is separately protected as a geographical indication.
- Leather and footwear — brand names from the Bantala cluster and its export trade.
- Publishing and media — imprints, mastheads and periodical titles in a strong publishing tradition.
- Jute and textiles — product and house marks from a historic industry.
Sector context is set out here to describe the local economy and to indicate where questions of this kind arise. It is not a statement about the firm’s clients or engagements.
Relevant statutory framework
- Patents Act, 1970
- Trade Marks Act, 1999
- Copyright Act, 1957
- Designs Act, 2000
- Geographical Indications of Goods Act, 1999
- Indian Contract Act, 1872 — Section 27
- Commercial Courts Act, 2015
- Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021
Frequently asked questions
Is there an intellectual property office in Kolkata?
It depends on the right. Trade marks for a Kolkata business go to the Trade Marks Registry, Kolkata and patents to the Patent Office (Head Office), Kolkata. Designs are examined at Kolkata, copyright is filed at New Delhi, and geographical indications at Chennai — each a single national office. Trade secrets have no registry at all. All of them file and prosecute electronically.
Which right should a business register first?
Whichever one can be destroyed by delay. Patents and designs both require novelty, so anything disclosed before filing is lost permanently — those come first. A trade mark can generally wait for the launch plan, though an availability search should be done before the name is committed to. Copyright already exists from creation, so registration can follow at leisure.
Can one product be protected by more than one right?
Usually it should be. A product may carry a trade mark on its name, a registered design on its shape, a patent on how it works, copyright in its packaging artwork and manual, and trade secret protection over its manufacturing process. They protect different things and are infringed in different ways, so relying on one leaves gaps a competitor can walk through.
Do Indian registrations give protection abroad?
No. Intellectual property is territorial. Protection outside India requires filing in each country or region, whether directly or through the Madrid Protocol for trade marks and the Patent Cooperation Treaty for patents. The firm handles Indian filings and national-phase entries directly, and coordinates international filings through associate agents abroad.
What does an IP audit involve?
Identifying what the business owns, confirming who actually owns it, checking that registrations are current and in use, and finding the gaps — commissioned work never assigned, designs never registered before production, confidential information never made subject to an obligation. Most audits turn up at least one ownership problem that is cheap to fix then and expensive later.
Does the firm handle IP litigation as well as filings?
Yes. The practice covers prosecution before the registries and contentious work — opposition, rectification, cancellation and revocation proceedings, and infringement and passing-off actions before the courts. Where a matter requires appearance before a court in West Bengal, the firm associates local counsel who appears on the record while the firm conducts the matter.
Can the firm act for a Kolkata business from Jaipur?
Prosecution before all five registries is electronic and hearings are ordinarily by video conference, so that work does not depend on the location of the advocate. For court appearances in West Bengal the firm associates local counsel. The firm’s chambers are in Jaipur and it does not maintain an office in Kolkata.
Riva Legal Associates works from a single chambers in Jaipur, Rajasthan and does not maintain an office in Kolkata. Matters requiring appearance before a court in West Bengal are handled in association with local counsel.
This page is published for general information about the law and procedure that applies to a business in Kolkata. It is not legal advice, an advertisement, or a solicitation, and it should not be relied upon as a statement of the law applicable to any particular matter. For advice on a specific matter, please contact the firm or consult a qualified advocate.
Other intellectual property matters in Kolkata
Intellectual Property in other cities
The firm accepts matters from clients across India, in association with local counsel where appearance in another state is required.
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