Rule 4

4. Appropriate office of the Trade Marks Registry.-

The appropriate office of the Trade Marks Registry for the purposes of making an application for registration of a trademark under section 18 or for giving notice of opposition under section 21 or for making an application for removal of a trademark under section 47 or cancelling or varying the registration of a trademark under section 57 or for any other proceedings under the Act and the rules shall be-

A. in relation to a trademark on the Register of Trade Marks at the notified date, the office of the Trade Marks Registry within whose territorial limits-

(i) the principal place of business in India of the registered proprietor of the trademark as entered in the register at such date is situate;

(ii) where there is no entry in the register as to the principal place of business in India of the registered proprietor, the place mentioned in the address for service in India as entered in the register at such date is situate;

(iii) in the case of jointly registered proprietors, the principal place of business in India of the proprietor whose name is entered first in the register as having such place of business in India at such date is situate;

(iv) where none of the jointly registered proprietors is shown in the register as having a principal place of business in India, the place mentioned in the address for service in India of the joint proprietors as entered in the register at such date, is situate;

(v) if no principal place of business in India of the registered proprietor of the trademark or in the case of joint registration, of any of the joint proprietors of the trademark, is entered in the register, and the register does not contain an address for service in India, the place of the office of the Trade Marks Registry where the application for registration of the trademark was made, is situate, and

B. in relation to a trademark for which an application for registration is pending at the notified date or is made on or after the notified date, the office of the Trade Marks Registry within whose territorial limits-

(i) the principal place of business in India of the applicant as disclosed in the application or, in the case of joint applicants, the principal place of business in India of the applicant whose name is first mentioned in the application, as having such place of business is situate;

(ii) where neither the applicant nor any of the joint applicants, as the case may be, has a principal place of business in India, the place mentioned in the address for service in India as specified in the application is situate.