Sound Board

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

The Annual Report 2016-2017, released by the Office of the CGPDTM has provided a detailed report of the recent changes in India’s IP regime. This post is a brief summary of the said report and an analysis of whether the recent changes have contributed in achieving the goal of the National IPR Policy 2016 which is ‘Creative India; Innovative India’.

As we all know, advocates and solicitors ought to obtain a power of attorney from their clients including non-resident clients, in order to facilitate the Advocate’s firm or Solicitor’s firm to act in its professional capacity for the client. Many a time, besides acting as Constituted Attorneys i.e. power of attorney holders, advocates also act as the advocates on record.

The Maldives has no legislation that has been enacted in terms of Intellectual Property Rights. To circumvent this, there is sufficient trademark protection that has been offered by way of acquiring public recognition through cautionary notices.

Trans-Border reputation is a concept that has been well founded in the Indian legal system since the landmark Whirlpool decision in 1996. This doctrine allows unregistered trademarks in India to maintain an action for passing off without the requirement of having commercial use in India.

The new policy is clearly informed by conservative pro-Intellectual Property (IP) ideology; yes, we are talking about the Tamil Nadu Government’s recent development on re-designating Video Piracy Cell as “Intellectual Property(IP) Right Enforcement Cell”.

Amazon started something called Amazon Brand Registry, an exclusive program designed for the sellers so that they can manage their brand, products, product details on their website through their brand name/trademark.

your Start-up would revolve around your IP in one way or the other and managing and protecting the same might actually decide the ground for you.

Opposition proceeding in India, though very long, is very interesting and fun. Before diving into the procedure of Opposition proceedingopposition proceeding, a quick run through of the general procedure of filing until registration would be helpful. After filing an application for a new mark, the Registry examines the application to determine the distinctiveness of the mark. If the Examiner is satisfied that the mark is distinctive enough and if there are no similar marks, it will be published…

One of the primary questions that arise when a business/startup decides to protect their brand or trademark is – whether a business should protect its trademark as a word or a logo?