Sound Board

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

The Indian Parliament on August 6th 2015 passed the Delhi High Court (Amendment) Act, 2015 which was published on August 10, 2015. The Act is rather short and contains two changes – a) that the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court would be raised from 20 Lakhs (approx. USD 30,000) to 2 crores (approx. USD 300,000) and b) that cases which were already pending with the Delhi High Court may be sent down to the subordinate Courts. This tenfold increase in the pecuniary jurisdiction was…

Rapid prototyping, or 3D printing as it is called today was a method to create prototypes in industries before actual products were manufactured. It was both cost-effective and also a good method of determining if there were any defects before actually manufacturing the actual product. Technology advanced and times changed; 3D printing is now used to create anything and everything, including low-cost prosthetic limbs, skin and bones and many more such imaginable things! 3D printing technology…

Before I start off telling the world the numerous ways in which different parts of a video games can be protected as an intellectual property, I must admit that I don’t play video games myself and all my knowledge about it is limited to all that I hear about it from friends and colleagues. Though video games have never really fascinated me, when I started reading and knowing more about them (purely for research!), it’s definitely something I wanted to try my hand at!

The Make in India logo with the symbol of a lion with the cogs, was reportedly designed by the Indian subsidiary of a US Agency Weidon+Kennedy (W+K) [Anyone else see the irony] seemed very fancy and innovative until thenewsminute.com reported that there was an uncanny resemblance between the Make in India logo and the logo of the sponsored campaign of the Cantonal Bank of Zurich in Switzerland.

My science teacher in school (I’m certain most them around the world) always told us how science is connected to everything in our day to day lives. It was quite amusing to understand how it worked practically and I wondered if it was in fact possible to connect something else like we connect science to our daily lives. I have come to realise that I feel the same way about intellectual property and constantly connect it to the things we come across in the course of our daily life – Mobile…

Growing up, board games were an integral part of my childhood and I particularly liked to play with my granddad because he’d always let me win! It is always fun to play a game of monopoly or scrabble with family or a group of friends, the losing and winning fights apart! Recently at work we were discussing games (among the many things discuss) and what we enjoy(ed) playing. It was while discussing this that I started thinking about intellectual property protection for board games.

Every single time I’m sitting at the comfort of my home, e-commerce window shopping and buying things at the click of a button, I feel so thankful. Though this is not how I ideally enjoy shopping, it definitely makes life easy on some days! The e-commerce business in India has picked up a great deal over the last few years and today there are dozens of e-commerce websites catering to consumers for their varied needs. The companies that started off earlier occupy a large market share (more…

In the recent past, the office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (hereinafter called "CGPDTM") has been striving to make prosecution relating to Intellectual Property Rights user-friendly and transparent. But in a surprise move, the CGPDTM is now focussing on educating the younger generation about Intellectual Property!

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.This is rather apt for the India IP scenario where many individuals and companies have been approaching the Courts with rather interesting questions (ones that we have always wanted answers to) and Courts have been very liberal, and cautious at the same time while interpreting these provisions of the intellectual property laws. With specific reference to the confidentiality clauses, non-disclosure agreements and trade secrets, there have…