Friday, June 3, 2011

More About Tencent Weibo

9:20 PM  Tech News  No comments

 

As is known to all, Tencent‘s CEO Pony Ma has instructed his staff, they must make Tencent Weibo more popular than Sina Weibo this year.

“They try everything. Every editorial staff at QQ.com, Tencent portal, has to post at least 10 messages on Tencent Weibo each day,” said one people close to QQ.com.

A recruitment ad appeared on May 23, saying Tencent is hiring 10 more editors for its Weibo division. Besides posting headline news on Tencent Weibo, the editor will also cooperate with other media and organize offline events.

The key of Weibo is not number of users.  Everyone in the industry knows Tencent’s instant message platform has tones of users. The key is about having opinion leaders to use your Weibo service to distribute their messages, and attracts a lot of followers, who redistribute the message.

Industry insiders said Tencent are paying top dollar to attract celebrities to use its Weibo.  One of them is Olympic champion, Liu Xiang, who has 16 million fans so far.  Another is Chinese actress, Xu Jinlei, who is also a top blogger on Sina’s blogging services (not Weibo). Xu has about 7 million fans on Tencent Weibo.

In comparison, Sina Weibo’s top blogger, Chinese actress, Yao Chen, has about 8 million fans.

However, apart from these “hired” helps, most of Tencent’s users are low-end, who seem to not responding well to its own weibo service. According to a report done by Mirae Asset in Jan 2011, 14% of Chinese internet are microblog users today. Of which, Sina Weibo has 54% of the total users and Tencent’s has 21%. But if we take into account usage rate (i.e. pageviews), Sina Weibo has 87% of the market and Tencent’s has just 8%.

One thing Tencent can try to boost its Weibo usage is to automatically post a message on its user’s Weibo whatever the user change his/her statues on QQ. For example, a lot of people write something about their mood, their status, etc. on QQ. These can be Weibo contents.

However, Tencent has tried that before, but it failed to have any significant impact. That function eventually incorporated into Q Zone, Tencent’s social network.

It seems Tencent has a lot of work to do to make its microblog surpass Sina Weibo’s success.

Related posts:

  1. Top Sina Microblogger gets 5 million followers
  2. Popularity of Sina Weibo will soon exceed Twitter
  3. Weibo Wars – Tencent vs.Sina


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May 2011 Japan IT Links (Part 3)

7:46 PM  Tech News  No comments

Continued from (Part 2). Last part of May news which we did not write as a dedicated article.

Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated.

If you want to know any specific news more, but unable to find them in other English blog/media, please let us know.


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Tata DOCOMO Launches Route Finder, Driving Directions Delivered Via SMS

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India is all about landmark based driving directions and Tata DOCOMO has launched RouteFinder service, that gives you turn by turn directions right on your phone via sms.

That is, you don’t need a 3G enabled smartphone for this and DOCOMO has clubbed an interesting offer as well – If you request for direction for the first time, your next request will be complementary! As far as pricing is concerned, the service is charged at Rs. 5/direction.

Earlier Google launched landmark based driving direction service and in general, this space is open for innovation (PowerPlug winner, Latlong is also doing interesting stuff regarding driving direction), but nobody can claim the leader spot in this business, as yet.

Recommended Read: Why Sat Nav(s) are not for Indian consumers?

Disclosure: DOCOMO is an annual sponsor at Pluggd.in.

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Sassor Urgently Introduces Power-saving Support Device To Meet Consumer Needs On Time

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Due to the tragedic accident of the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was caused by the massive earthquake on March 11, Eastern Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Area are still afraid of unpredictable and large-scale blackouts.  In town, or at railway stations, we see many digital signboards that shows us a real-time statistics of power consumption (data provided by power companies) for encouraging power saving.   A hot season will come next month, to save energy and avoid possible blackouts, we will be severely required to refrain from turning air conditioners on unlike the past summer.

Many companies have announced countermeasures including switching their power source to solar systems, extending summer vacations, deploying daylight saving time, time-shifed working etc.   What about households?   We also experienced the energy crisis about 35 years ago, which has contributed a lot to improving the fuel efficiency of Japan-made automobiles.   The power shortage that we are currently facing may also work positively to make our technologies and lifestyles much better.

Sassor, a Kanagawa-based tech start-ups specializing in interactive and service design, just announced their first product for encouraging reasonable power use and started accepting orders for it this week.   That is named ELP lite[J], the first entry version of the Energy Literacy Platform, and shows you how much each of your home appliances are consuming power on a web-based interface.   The service is a combination of a receiver that is set up between an appliance and a powerpoint to deliver measured consumption data to a server, an easy-to-see website that shows you a realtime statistics, and a smartphone app that allows you to check it out at anytime anywhere.

The company has planned to introduce it later this year, but advanced the schedule to serve our society better by providing solutions on time.  Starting at 19,500 yen, their pricing varies on which type of the service you choose by considering how many convenient features are additionally provided.

Sassor was founded in September 2010 by two young men graduated from Keio University, Shuichi Ishibashi[J] and Takayuki Miyauchi[J].   They got mentoring at Open Network Lab[J], the Tokyo version of Y-combinator-like incubator, and fundraised several million yen (exact number not disclosed) from Samurai Incubate Fund.

See Also:


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Docomo Opens Official Facebook Page

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Docomo, Japan's No.1 cellphone carrier, has opened an official Facebook page today.

"New Smartphone Review" page introduces their latest 9 smartphones and asked users to comment.

"Message Card" corner lets you send a Docomodake message card to your Facebook friends. Docomodake is a mashroom character of Docomo.

No.2 KDDI au announced its alliance with Facebook on May 17th. KDDI au has an official Facebook page, and is to pre-install Facebook client and widget on some phones.

In the same May, Docomo announced a partnership with Twitter, but there is no reason for Docomo to reassure for case Facebook will turn over Twitter.


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Launch @ UnPluggd–Apply Now! [The Application Form is Live]

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Shine Bright!

Grab an opportunity to demo your product in front of India (and South East Asia)’s Entrepreneurial + Business & Investor audience – and gain that ‘extra edge’ over your competition.

If you are a technology product startup and can fight your way to grab the demo slow (only 10) in front of India’s most active angel investors, VC and early adopter community, potential customers – grab your chance.

This time, we have a whole lot of goodies for you and we will announce them over the next few days.

Send in your nomination right away (last date to apply is June 26th) – here is the link to nomination form (form also embedded at the end of this post).

Nomination FAQs

Qn: Who Can Apply?

Early stage technology product startups (in existence for 0-1 year).

Qn: What is the Nomination Process like?
Once the nomination is closed (deadline is June 26th), 30 companies will be selected and these companies will be contacted via email. We (i.e. the panel) will schedule meetings/skype conference with the companies in order to understand their business in depth. Out of 30, the final list of presenting startups (10) will be selected.

Qn: Who sees my submission?
The Pluggd.in team (Ashish Sinha & Pratyush Prasanna initially). At a later stage, we will announce the panel and you can choose not to share details with a panel member, if you aren’t comfortable with the names (for competitive reasons).

If you are selected for further rounds, we will get in touch with you to discuss more details/process.

Qn: I want to launch my product at UnPluggd!

Nothing like launching your product at an event where you can derive maximum eye balls – right from angel investors to VCs, media and most importantly, early adopters. Send in your nomination right away.

Qn: Do presenting companies have to pay?
Nothing. Presenting companies DO NOT have to pay to showcase at the event. Having said that, you will have to bear your travel/stay/entry charges.

Qn: What about Nomination? Is it free?
Yes. Free as in, Free.

Qn: We are still developing the product and plan to launch it by July. Are we eligible?
In general, we don’t want to showcase just prototypes, but we suggest that you go ahead and nominate your startup. If you have a matured prototype (with thought-thru’ use cases), we would surely love to have you at the event.

Qn: I am a services company. Should I apply?
Pluggd.in has always been about product startups and that’s where we will focus this time too. Of course the event itself would be a great opportunity to meet potential customers, startups and cool people.

Qn: We haven’t yet started making money. Shall we nominate ourselves?
Well, it takes a while for product companies to monetize in India. We respect IP (Intellectual Properties) and would love to have your nomination.

Qn: Who are the VCs attending the event?

Pretty much all the known names. Apart from VC firms, a lot of angel investors will be present at India’s finest Startup event, UnPluggd.

Qn: I have more questions.
You can ask here (in the comment section) or get in touch asap [email: ashish@pluggd.in]. Do mention “UnPluggd” in the subject line.

– UnPluggd is scheduled for July 9th (Bangalore).

Application Form

Nomination Form For UnPluggd3, India's Finest Startup Visibility Platform

Nominate Your Startup To Demo At UnPluggd3 Event, scheduled for July 9th, Bangalore.
  • Your Name*
  • Company Website*
  • Email*
    Your Email Address. Ensure that you check this email id frequently.
  • Company Founding Date*
  • Company Logo*
  • Product Name*
  • Industry Category
  • Product Description*
    Tell us why do you think this is a great product.
  • What (and Whose) Problem Are you Solving?*
    Be precise about the problem statement you are solving Do mention the target segment as well as your business USP.
  • Core Technology
    E.g. : PHP, Java etc. Do share the core technology used in the product.
  • Working Prototype/Video/Demo Link
    Share link to working prorotype or demo of your product.
  • Have you started making money?*
    Are you pre-revenue? This doesn't impacts the nomination evaluation process, but we need to know what stage are you in.
  • How do you plan to make (more) money?*
    How do you plan to make (more) money?
  • How many employees do you have? How do you pay their salaries today?
    We have to know how you are running the business today. This will definitely be a question asked up in stage - so do get your answers prepared :)
  • What do you intend to get from UnPluGGd?
    Do let us know your expectations (be candid).
  • Tell us Something Special About Your Product/Startup.
    Tell us something special (about the product/company) that you haven't told anybody else.

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Group(on) Value, Where Art Thou? Is Group Buying A Proven Model Yet?

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[Editorial Notes: This is a guest article by Preetham, founder of Quantama, a LBS service. Preetham shares an insight into the group buying model and why it seems to be quite a bit of hot gas, especially after you read Groupon’s IPO fling report.]

There are exciting theories and debates on group buying, thanks to the promised land prescribed by Groupon who made Group buying the current rock-star of the fledgling US markets (post, recent down-turns that is). (Is it adding to inflation or aiding? Hmmm, tangentially different debate.) With today’s S-1 filing, the heat (usually which allows a hot air balloon to raise) seems to be turned on. Don’t get me wrong. Hot air balloons are the greatest invention which allowed mankind to fly. Just that its not a preferred mode of transport since the Heidenburg disaster.

So is Group buying a proven model yet?

Quick recap: Retailers usually break down their sales life cycle largely into Acquisition, Retention and Servicing. The budgets for ATL (Above the line), deep-discounts and loss-leader line of products typically falls in the Acquisition cycles. The loyalty and BTL (Below the line) promotions fall into the Retention bucket. Upgrades and up-sell falls into the Servicing bucket. Smart Retailers do not aggregate a single promotional budget to track their consumer micro-segments. Instead, they spend their research and sampling $$ on new customers, marketing $$ on Silver profiles, retention $$ on Gold profiles and the Service $$ on Platinum profiles. Not all these budgets are equal. Most important of all, The ROI of each of these spends are significantly different for each micro-segment. Also, retailers trade-up during boom cycles and trade-down during bust-cycles (So the budget varies).

Where does group-buying fall into? Clearly the Acquisition bucket (which is NOT a capex spend but a marketing cost). The Acquisition is the big funnel that marketers fill in order to convert the footfalls towards the Retention bucket. One must make sure that they fill quality leads which aids in healthy conversion helping them move the leads to the Retention bucket. What are quality leads? Are consistent deal-seekers quality leads? Are Bargain hunters quality leads? Is the cumulative conversion index per consumption-segment positive? These are some of the questions which a optimized, organized retailer such as GAP, Walmart etc. asks. Are these measures different for a SMB retailer? I would argue that they are even more applicable for a SMB.

When does one deep-discount? typically, when you have end-of-line sale, surplus capacity whose account has gone into sunken cost, poor-utilization rates (Ex: Hotel Rooms), Expiring shelf-life, to clear product line whose GMROII is not positive, Projected increase in policy costs (Taxation changes on holding inventory), or adding large sampling to acquire new customer base for virgin markets or virgin products. (I may have missed few others for sake of brevity). Most of the above is a provisional measure for retailers who are operating in a larger scale of economy. What are the premise for SMBs then? In my umpteen conversions with the SMBs, deep-discounting occurs primarily to add leads to their funnel in the hope that the consumer shall experience the “Unique product offering, Service and Ambiance” which is a differentiation for the SMB to exist. Now this sounds like a virgin offering. So it clearly is for “Sampling” then for the SMBs.

Now, the Cost of Consumer Acquisition (CCA) should be paying off on the long run through two different measures that adds up.
1) NPV or the Net Present Value of the Consumer.
2) LTV or the Life Time Value of the Consumer.

The NPV for virgin footfalls does not exist. Which leaves the LTV. This materializes after the conversion. Remember that the CCA of ‘N’ who are added to the funnel is used in determining the ‘M’ conversions and their LTV. Meaning the CCA cost of adding 100 virgin footfalls must be offset by the LTV of the 5 who gets converted (5% as a example).
The CCA and LTV are very segment specific (Beauty & Massage parlours, Small Eateries & Restaurants, Boutique Hotels, Convenience Stores etc..). The conversions are also segment specific. Not only are they segment specific, the country of operation, the consumer behavioral context, culture and current economy makes a huge difference in any of these measures.

As an example: A country like USA where people leave a tip in the Restaurant on the original price of the meal-offer (Not on the group-discounted price) makes a significantly large difference in the operating cost for the Vendor as against in India where people usually do not like to leave tips or have a standard 5 Rupee coin for whatever the ware maybe.

Also the LTV is a layered value derived based on effective frequency of visit. Meaning, How many of them visited 1 time, 2 times etc… and the relative spend thereafter. Also, there is a break even frequency at the same cost before a positive value can be derived (Here is a simplified calculator)

Not all SMBs are also geared to service a peak footfall that occurs during this group-buying frenzy, which results in diluted service/offering. This hampers the conversions badly. Most of the SMBs are not seeing a conversion above 3% (median) of the footfall. I have been following rants about SMBs saying that they shall never go back for Group-buying again . I have also heard rave reviews about some Up-sale (NOT conversion) during such frenzy, especially in the Beauty Segment (people walk in for 500 RS worth of ware but spend 10K), These guys love the group-buying models… besides, there has been theories that deal-seeking bargain-hunters are never loyal (There are stats to prove this)… All of this has to play out towards a equilibrium in the long run.

The point is: Group-buying in its current avatar (Independent of what ever the top-line suggests for Groupon) is not YET a proven model for SMBs. It cannot address the economy of scale challenges of the big retailers either. So where does it fit as a positive operational model? I am not saying that this will fail. Its just that there is a lot more nuance and context specific treatment that is required to make this a classic. I am sure the markets will figure it out eventually.

For now, how many of you are standing in the line for the Groupon IPO? Make sure you do not sell your house as of yet to invest :)

What’s your opinion?

[Reproduced from Preetham’s blog]

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Tim Draper is the Risk Master

7:46 PM  Tech News  No comments

In Beijing at least, it feels like everyone is an investor. So for many entrepreneurs who are not familiar with the investment side of things, sorting out the good from the bad can be difficult. At this year’s CHINICT event in Beijing, the famous Tim Draper of VC Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Skype called in from Paris where he was invited by French President, Nicolas Sarkozy to advise him on internet before he went on to lead the G-8 session (A group of 8 world major economies, strangely China as the 2nd largest economy is not one of them).

VC runs through the Draper Family

So who is Tim Draper and why is he so interesting? His grandfather, William Draper launched the first Silicon Valley venture firm in 1959 and is credited with kick-starting the venture capital industry; his father Bill co-founded Sutter Hill Ventures and later created the first U.S.-India venture capital partnership. His daughter Jesse Draper, has her own show called valleygirl.tv which looks at entrepreneurship from a very feminine and pink perspective.

Skype, Hotmail, Baidu…enough said

DFJ has made a host of impressive investments. Internationally, Skype (sold to eBay and now Microsoft), Overture (sold to Yahoo), Hotmail (sold to Microsoft) and Admob (sold to Google) are some of the most prominent. Within China, Baidu, Focus Media and PPLive are monstrously valuable investments. It’s amazing to think that, without the investment and support from a VC like DFJ, would these services we use daily ever exist?

Tim knew China would be big

As a pioneering investor into China, Tim said that a long time ago he realized China was where America was at the turn of the industrial revolution, when it was getting rich. “When you see your neighbour buy a nice car, you want a nice car, when they get a fridge you want a fridge and when they get a tv, you want a tv.” Tim saw this trend being inevitable in China, so the first DFJ China fund was established in 1998.

Baidu was probably the best investment decision we ever made

Baidu dominates China’s search engine market with 76% share. It currently trades on NASDAQ for US$138 per share and has a market capitalization of US$48.31bn (as of today).

“I invested in Robin Li because he is steady, consistent and gives great confidence that he can execute well… it’s his charisma. Originally we felt we were paying a high price but it turned out to be a very low price and Baidu was probably the best investment decision we ever made.”

China is doing things that America isn’t even dreaming of

When asked about his views on Chinese innovation, Tim adamantly believed that China has what it takes to compete internationally and sees the country as innovative. “Some of the most innovative companies in the world are in China and they are doing things America isn’t even dreaming of.”

He also strongly feels that success stories such as Baidu, give confidence to entrepreneurs to try new things.

Attack the bad gorillas

When asked about what type of business an entrepreneur should go into, he recommended going after markets where there is an entrenched incumbent who has a monopoly position and customers aren’t happy. For example, Hotmail gave us email when people were unhappy with paying for a relatively slow postal system. Skype gave us free international calls when telecommunication carriers charged exorbitant amounts of money.

He is the Risk Master…Skates on the edge of disaster

At the end of his talk, despite being 5am in the morning in Paris, Tim gave a great rendition of his song about being an entrepreneur. That’s when you know you love this stuff! You can download this song on iTunes and read his blog here.

Risk Master lyrics by Tim Draper:

Invested all his mattress money
Divorced his Prom Queen hometown honey
Scraping up his alimony
Friends think he’s a little funny

Needs a “world class CEO.”
Just another million or so
Get him to some real cash flow
So tears and sweat can IPO

For 15 years he’s been out gunned
Bankers demanding blood refund
Company’s looking Moribund
Even Draper will not fund!

Chorus:
He is the Riskmaster
Lives fast drives faster
Skates on the edge of disaster
He is the Riskmaster

He’s got a mission
Company vision
An artist’s ambition
Gut intuition
Fearless and free employee
No guarantee for the Corporate escapee

Team fights on against the trend
Had to lay off his best friend
Called a “recession” seems like “depression.”
Chapter seven. Is this the end?

But then a salesman shouts, “We got it!”
The company’s gonna show a profit
To think the papers rang, “quixotic”
The sky has opened astronautic.

Chorus:
He is the Riskmaster
Lives fast drives faster
Skates on the edge of disaster
He is the Riskmaster

He is on top, on top of the world
At last they see it. Vision unfurled!
Cashflow landslide!
Now everybody wants a piece of his hide.
Court wants him tried. Press wants him fried.
Anyone this rich must have lied.

Chorus:
He is the Riskmaster
Lives fast drives faster
Skates on the edge of disaster
He is the Riskmaster

To the moon!

 

Related posts:

  1. Skype Founder, Niklas Zennström – coming trends and China market
  2. Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström will visit Beijing in January
  3. Tech investment in China: RMB fund Vs USD fund


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Guess Who Else Invested In Innovation Works? HTC, DST, Ron Conway and Mayor Bloomberg

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Word has been circulating for months that Tencent has invested US$ tens of millions in Innovation Works, the Chinese startup incubator founded by former Google China head Kaifu Lee. Innovation Works spokesman Wang Zhaohui confirmed part of the speculation last night, saying Tencent did invested in the Chinese startup cradle, but refused to disclose the exact sum.

According to local news, investors behind Innovation Works’ back include HTC, Tencent, Russia-based DST, profound American angel investor Ron Conway and Bloomberg, mayor of New York city. People close to Innovation Works disclosed that the Chinese incubator now owns a fund of over RMB 800 million (US$ 123 million).

Also, Tencent is really at it. The Chinese internet powerhouse has swerved from its usual deeds of diving into new fields on its own and became public enemy, getting started to spend its way into new markets. As we have reported before, it had set up a RMB 500 million (US$ 77.15 million) worth of fund focusing on investing in TV serials, film and production houses in this April; then announced investing in Chinese big name film production company HBrothers Pictures last month, acquiring 4.6% shares for RMB 440 million (US$ 67.89 million). Later on, the big appetite shopper went on with US$ 84.4 million investment in elong (Chinese subsidiary of Expedia) for 16% of shares and US$ 50 million investment in Okbuy, a Chinese online vertical for shoes.

Usually, it seems to startups that Tencent is a vicious predator, waiting aside uneasily for a chance to plunge into their territory and squeeze them out of the market. The giant Chinese internet company has released its own portal(qq.com), search engine(soso.com), video site(v.qq.com), online auction service (paipai.com), online payment solution (tenpay.com), social network site (pengyou.com), mini-blog(t.qq.com) and many others, the list can go on and on. This would be why Tencent is deemed as public enemy in Chinese websphere.

So Tencent’s recent moves should bode well for Chinese startups, they might have the opportunity of receiving money from Tencent rather than being squeezed out.

Related posts:

  1. Innovation Works or Shanzhai Works
  2. Rumor v2: Kaifu Lee Is To Launch Innovation-Works
  3. Russia's DST invested US$500 million in 360buy


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Fluent Space to bring the indie-creatives together

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Having a mobile working environment can have its ups and downs – on one hand, you don’t have to be stuck in cubicles, but on the other, working in cafes and restaurants can’t possibly be a great way to get work done during crunchtime.

That’s the dilemma Kamal Mahyuddin, a Malaysian Ruby on Rails developer who also worked on ViiKii, the crowd-sourced video subtitling startup, aims to solve by opening co-working space Fluent Space. Based in Kelana Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Fluent Space was inspired by the co-working spaces he came across when he went to a Barcamp in Portland, Oregon.

“It was a natural thing for me to create a co-working space,” said Kamal, who has been a freelancer for two years. “If you look at Portland, there are many independents designers and programmers working in small teams, and the only way for them to mix in a way that makes sense is to be part of a co-working collective.”

With Fluent Space, he’s planning to do more than create a space where strangers come to work, but rather develop a community environment where independent creative-type folks – developers, designers, multimedia industry people – can help each other in ways that they couldn’t if they worked apart.

“What’s important for the freelance community is the support group. There’s so many things that they can do to help each other, like give advice on contractual matters, how to deal with clients, and how to get more clients for example. I want to curate the space to include people who create things,” he said.

For RM600 (US$200) a month, what you’ll get is a desk, a comfortable SteelCase Think chair, unlimited coffee from a coffee pod machine (those Nespresso-like devices), daily breakfast, mailbox and the use of a fax/copier machine. There are also day passes available for RM40 per day, sold in pre-paid “packs” of 10 day-passes, and for those who don’t want a physical space at all, they can register a postal address here for RM80 a month.

For more information, follow Fluent Space on Twitter at @fluentspace. Fluent Space is at 50M-3 Kelana Mall, Jalan SS 6/14 Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Check out the video here to get a tour of Fluent Space and the idea behind its design.


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Explained: Why & How to Conduct a Trademark Search?

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Trademarks are sought to protect the identity of a business/company. Performing a trademark search is a crucial step before adopting a trademark. When a trademark search is conducted, the possibility of a trademark being similar to an existing trademark is checked. Individuals and companies who fail to perform a trademark search early on often regret later when they find themselves embroiled in expensive legal disputes or in situations when they are compelled to change their trademark—both of which could have been easily avoided with a simple trademark search.

What is a trademark search?

A trademark search is a search made in the database of the Trademark Registry. The search determines whether a proposed trademark is available for use in connection with certain goods or services. In the search, similar word marks as well as phonetically similar names in a specific class is comprehensively searched.

Advantages of trademark search:

Firstly, and most importantly, a trademark search will tell whether someone else have already adopted your proposed trademark or adopted a highly similar one.  If you adopt a trademark that is already in use by someone else, you may be inviting a trademark infringement lawsuit. Infringement suits involve a huge amount of money and, losing or settling the suit means either paying monetary damages or discontinuing the use of your trademark or both.

Secondly, a trademark search will clearly list any prior trademark registrations or pending applications that are likely to prevent you from registering your trademark with the Trademark Registry in future.  This will save time and money of filing an application to register a trademark that has little chance of actually getting registered.

Thirdly, a trademark search will help you assess the relative strength of your mark by showing you how many other similar trademarks are already there in the marketplace.

trade_mark_search

How to conduct a trademark search?

An online trademark search in the Trademark Registry can be done free of charge at the link [Interface] : http://124.124.193.236/tmrpublicsearch/tmsearch.aspx

Search Interface is divided into three category

a) Wordmark- For similar representation of names

b) Device Mark-For similar artistic representation

c) Phonetic-For phonetically similar words.

Search Parameters

First select the search criteria from the options given- the options are Wordmark, Device mark, Phonetic.

For example, to perform a Wordmark search, select “Wordmark” from the Categories and insert the keywords of your proposed trademark in the box corresponding to Wordmark. From the Prefix drop-down menu select either “Starts With” or “Contains”.

In “Starts With” option, any trademark starting with the entered keyword will be searched; whereas in the “Contains” option, any trademark containing the entered keyword as part of the name would be searched.

From the condition dropdown you can select prefixes either ‘AND’ or ‘OR’ Category. The class related your services or product belongs to your proposed trademark is entered in the box corresponding to ‘CLASS’. There are 45 classes of trademark registration. Classes’ 1-34 deals with various goods and Classes 35-45 deals with services.

After the required fields are thus entered, click on ‘Start Search’ button to view your search result. The details of each of the trademark applications would be shown in the result and to create a report, you can select the applications you want to view in further detail by marking them in the boxes available and clicking “Report”

After doing the trademark search if it is found that there are no similar trademarks on record then you can proceed for the trademark registration by applying it at the Trademark Office.

[Guest article contributed by Pankhi Dutta, an IP Analyst at Intepat IP Services Pvt Ltd, Bangalore]

Also see: Trademarks registration in India – The Entrepreneur’s Guide

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