The Rest of the Act, and How to Read It

In one line

Six provisions have not been taught anywhere else in this book, and this chapter teaches them and then explains the method by which every other section was read.

Section 1: title, extent, commencement

1(1). "This Act may be called the TRADE MARKS ACT, 1999." It is Act 47 of 1999, and it received the assent of the President on 30 December 1999.

1(2). "It extends to THE WHOLE OF INDIA."

1(3). "It shall come into force ON SUCH DATE AS THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MAY, BY NOTIFICATION IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE, APPOINT: PROVIDED that DIFFERENT DATES MAY BE APPOINTED FOR DIFFERENT PROVISIONS, and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to THE COMING INTO FORCE OF THAT PROVISION."

The Act was brought into force on 15 SEPTEMBER 2003, by notification S.O. 1048(E). Nearly four years after assent, which is why the Act is called the Act of 1999 and the law it made dates from 2003.

And the proviso to section 1(3) is not decoration. Chapter IVA, the Madrid Protocol provisions inserted by the 2010 amendment, came into force on 8 July 2013, on which day the omission of Chapter X also took effect. Section 1(3) is the mechanism by which a single Act has several commencement dates, and it is why "the commencement of this Act" in a given section means the commencement of that provision.

Section 154: convention country priority

154(1). With a view to the fulfilment of a treaty, convention or arrangement with a country, group of countries, union of countries or Inter-Governmental Organisation which affords to citizens of India similar privileges as granted to its own citizens, the Central Government may by notification declare it a convention country for the purposes of the Act.

154(2), the priority rule. Where a person has applied to register a mark in a convention country and he, his legal representative or assignee, applies in India WITHIN SIX MONTHS after the date of that application, the mark shall, if registered under this Act, BE REGISTERED AS OF THE DATE ON WHICH THE APPLICATION WAS MADE IN THE CONVENTION COUNTRY, and that date shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the date of registration.

154(3), multiple filings. Where applications have been made in two or more convention countries, the six months is reckoned from the earlier or earliest of them.

154(4), the limit. "Nothing in this Act shall entitle the proprietor of a trade mark to recover damages for infringement WHICH TOOK PLACE PRIOR TO THE DATE OF APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER THIS ACT."

Read 154(2) and 154(4) together. The priority date is backdated for registration; it is not backdated for damages. So a proprietor who claims priority from a foreign filing cannot recover damages for anything done before he actually applied in India.