Britannia Industries v. ITC Ltd & Ors – Deceptively dissimilar?
October 5, 2021India,Intellectual Property Rights,Trademarkstrademarks,trade dress,intellectual property
The Delhi High Court on April 5, 2021 dismissed two applications filed by Britannia Industries against ITC Ltd for alleged trademark infringement and passing off by the latter.
The dire need for a Post Registration Trademark Audit Program in India
September 16, 2021India,Intellectual Property Rights,Trademarkstrademark use,trademark audit,USPTO,trademarks,India
Under the USA’s Post Registration Audit Program, a declaration of use must be filed between the fifth and sixth year of the validity of the registration of the trademark. So, the Applicant has the burden of proof to show proper usage of the mark for all the goods and services provided under the relevant classes. However, India being a common law country and a first-to-use jurisdiction, one would assume that the use of a trademark would be of prime importance and would consequently, be a…
Seeking Injunction in a Suit of Infringement and Passing off – Trademarks
August 23, 2021India,Intellectual Property Rights,Trademarksinjunctions,Infringement,Passing off,trademarks
In the case of Hindustan Unilever Ltd v. An Opposing Party, the Bombay High Court called out the practice of seeking separate reliefs of injunction for passing off and infringement when pleadings were presented in respect of matters of trademark infringement.
Revisiting Copyright law and Artificial Intelligence – Part 2
July 22, 2021Intellectual Property Rights,IndiaCopyrights,AI,artificial intelligence
In the part one of this article we discussed about the general understanding of AI divided as ANI and AGI, ANI’s adoption and influence in the copyright law, and complexities arising out of the adoption of ANI while generating copyrightable works. Further, let us understand the intricacies involved in the examination of ANI. What could happen if ANI generated works are granted copyright protection, and other complexities that could arise if ANI is left unsupervised.
Keyword Advertising and Trademarks
July 21, 2021Intellectual Property Rights,Trademarks,Indiagoogle ads,trademarks,keyword advertising
In this day and age, internet is a powerful tool for advertising with limitless reach and keyword advertising is the most popular form of digital advertising. It has generated massive revenue streams for search engines offering the service, for instance, Google’s ad revenue amounted to US dollars 146 billion and majority of the advertising revenue came from keyword advertising.
Recategorization of Patent Applicants and Implementation Barriers to Rule 7(3) of The Patents Rules
July 20, 2021Intellectual Property Rights,Patents,IndiaIP India,Patent Amendments
The Patents (Second Amendment) Rules, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘amendment rules’) that came into force on November 4, 2020, primarily recategorized the Applicants and the fees paid by them for filing and prosecution of a patent. Presently, the amendment has classified applicants
Revisiting Copyright law and Artificial Intelligence – Part 1
July 20, 2021Intellectual Property Rights,Copyrights,Indiaartificial intelligence,Copyrights,AI
Simply put Artificial intelligence (AI) is non biological intelligence. But what is ‘intelligence’? Well, there is no conclusive answer to the definition of ‘intelligence’ and over the years there is no agreement even among AI researchers on the definition of ‘intelligence’. To paint a broad picture, intelligence means the ability to solve complex problems.
Delhi High Court creates Intellectual Property Division
July 18, 2021Intellectual Property Rights,IndiaDelhi High Court,Intellectual Property Division
In order to streamline the process of dealing with IPR disputes, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice D.N.Patel constituted a two-member committee. Based on the recommendations provided for in the report of the committee, the Delhi High Court via a press release on July 7, 2021, created an Intellectual Property Division (IPD) in the said High Court to deal with all matters related to Intellectual Property Rights.
Trademark Clearance Searches for Devices & Shapes in India using Vienna Classification
May 26, 2021Intellectual Property Rights,Trademarks,IndiaTrademark Clearance Searches,Vienna Classification
The Vienna Classification which originated from the Vienna Agreement (1973) is an international classification of the figurative elements of marks (more on the Vienna Agreement and classification can be found here and more on India’s accession to the Vienna agreement could be found here). The first edition of the said Classification was published in 1973, with the Agreement effective from 1985.
Prosecution history estoppel in India – A suit of armour or a double-edged sword?
May 26, 2021India,Intellectual Property Rights,TrademarksInfringement,trademarks,intellectual property
The doctrine of prosecution history estoppel is popularly associated with patent litigation. In the context of patents, the doctrine constitutes a legal defence to an assertion of infringement whereby the Examiner determines the scope of infringement by examining if there is an overlap between the elements of the impugned products/process in light of the claims of patent, rather than a literal infringement of the same. Although not as apparent as in patent prosecution, prosecution history…