Sound Board

Our thoughts and views on the practice of Intellectual Property in India and around the world.

One of the significant judgements from the recent time is the order of the Delhi High Court in the popular Crocs case. In an order dated March 6, 2019, the Court rejected the maintainability of a suit for passing off, in the case of a registered design. It is important to note here that the Plaintiff had brought this suit after the Court had previously rejected its previous suit for infringement of its registered design, holding that the same was invalid on the ground of prior publication

Canada has announced that the anticipated changes to the Trademarks Act will finally be coming into force on June 17, 2019. The changes are expected to simplify the domestic registration process and provide access to e international registration process administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization

In a recent judgement, the Bombay High Court had clarified an issue of copyright law that is likely to have an immediate impact on the rise in popularity of music streaming services.

Cadbury in 1995 filed an application to claim rights over the colour mark for the shade Pantone 2685 C. Cadbury’s 1995 (original) application was filed only for chocolates in a bar or tablet form with a description of the colour mark: “The mark consists of the colour Purple (Pantone 2685C) as shown on the form of the application, applied to the whole visible surface, or being the predominant colour applied to the whole visible surface, of the packaging of the goods.”  

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of Pakistan has announced that there will be an amendment to the official fee for all the procedures related to Trademarks by amending the Trademarks Rules, 2014. The amendment for the official fee was notified vide an Official notice dated March 04, 2019 and it will be entered into effect as of March 9, 2019 and constituted a massive escalation in the fee of approximately 50%.

The accession is expected to instil confidence in foreign investors, applicants, businesses in relation to the protection of their Intellectual Property in India. The accession would also facilitate in exercising rights in decision-making processes regarding review and revision of the classifications under the agreement.

The following are the significant changes which were brought about by the Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2018 and subsequently published in the Official Gazette. It came into force on December 4, 2018.

An application for registration of a trademark has to be filed before the trademark office in Qatar. If a foreign applicant is applying for registration, a local agent must apply on behalf of the Applicant and a power of attorney legalized by a Qatari consulate in the Applicant’s country is necessary. There is no multi-class trademark application in Qatar.  

Domain names play a vital role in business as it has been used by the common public to identify the business. A dispute in relation to the domain name arises when any party registers an earlier trademark as their domain name. It is necessary that the trademark of the complainant must be identical or confusingly similar to the second level domain of the disputed domain name. This requirement rules out complaints raised by an owner of the unregistered trademark. Domain names can also be…

The Indian Trademark Law grant exclusive rights to the trademark owner. The exclusivity here indicates that the trademark owner has the liberty to utilize his/her trademarks without any external interferences. The Indian Trademark Laws grants bundle of rights to the trademark holders and the rights of every trademark owner includes the right to commence and prosecute a legal action against infringement of his/her rights in a trademark. It is important that the action taken by the trademark…