What Is a Trademark Objection and How Do You Reply?

Short answer: a trademark objection is raised by the Registry’s own examiner about your application — under Section 9 (absolute grounds) or Section 11 (relative grounds) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 — after examination. You must file a written reply within 1 month (30 days) of receiving the Examination Report, extendable up to two further months.

Objection vs opposition — don’t confuse the two

This trips up a lot of first-time applicants:

• An objection comes from the Registry’s examiner, about the application itself, during examination.
• An opposition is a challenge filed by a third party (e.g. a competitor), after your mark is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal.

They happen at different stages, have different deadlines, and are handled differently. Read about opposition →

What triggers an objection?

Common grounds include:

• Absolute grounds (Section 9) — the mark is too generic, descriptive, or lacks distinctiveness.
• Relative grounds (Section 11) — the mark is identical or confusingly similar to an existing registered or pending mark.

What happens if I don’t reply in time?

Missing the reply deadline risks the application being treated as abandoned — meaning you’d need to start over, including paying the filing fee again. This is the single most common way applicants lose an otherwise-good mark.

What does a good reply look like?

A reply addresses each ground the examiner raised, with legal argument and, where relevant, evidence of the mark’s distinctiveness or actual use (invoices, advertising, packaging). If the written reply alone doesn’t satisfy the examiner, a show cause hearing is scheduled — usually by video conference. Read about the hearing stage →

Next step

If you’ve received an Examination Report, the clock is already running. Start your objection reply enquiry →