Sound Board

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

All marketing techniques are aimed to capture the attention of the consumer and make an impact. A distinctive trademark with a catchy tag line and colour scheme is probably more likely to stay on the minds of the consumer. A number of marketing experts believe that colour is the most important elements of branding and rightly so, because a number of brands can be recognized solely on the basis of the colour. Christian Louboutin shoes with the red sole and Cadbury with its purple packaging are…

The term ‘marked for exam’ implies that a trademark application has been taken up for examination or is due to be examined shortly by the Trademark Office. The term “examination” per se means that the particular trademark would be examined to see if it satisfies and overcomes the objections enunciated in the Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999( what we call “absolute and relative grounds” under Section 9 and 11), only after which it proceeds to advertisement and ultimately registration.

The popular misconception is that the symbol ™ can only be used after a trademark has been applied for registration and not otherwise.

During the British rule in India, Khadi was not just a cloth, it was a movement by Gandhiji where he promoted it as an ideology and instilled in the minds of Indians that they could be self-sufficient if they wore only khadi and that they needn’t rely on the high priced goods of the British. Over the years, khadi lost its hold on the Indian market and sales of khadi products became abysmal owing to the wide variety of cloths and garments available in the market.

The most common question arising now in the minds of people, especially entrepreneurs, is if it is not possible to apply for registering a trademark by themselves, without getting any assistance from a trademark lawyer. The misconception is that trademark application is nothing but a mere filling out of forms. But the most important question to ask is : “does the process end there..or on the contrary, begin there?”

Shakespeare’s ‘what’s in a name’ was apt for utopian times when he was of the view that a rose would smell like a rose even if it were called by another name. Today, in the world of competition, when celebrities are trying to out-do each other in the race for fame and endorsements, trademark rights are significantly important. Lately, Shahrukh Khan has been in the news for reasons other than the release of his latest film Happy New Year. A number of newspapers recently reported that the actor’s…

We had recently written about an order that was passed by the Controller General of Patent, designs and Trademarks restricting the amendments that can be made to a trademark application and hoped that IPAA would appeal this matter. It has come to our notice that IPAA in fact took up this matter before the Delhi High Court and the Court quashed the order passed by the Controller General of Patent, Designs and Trademarks on October 9, 2014.

International Non-Proprietary Names (INN) are globally recognized names for pharmaceutical substances or active pharmaceutical ingredients and are also known as generic names. The International Non-Proprietary Names were first initiated by the World Health Assembly in 1950 with a view to designate universally recognisable names for pharmaceutical substances. In furtherance to this, the WHO has published a list of over 7000 generic names since its inception. The WHO guidelines states the…

The status “ advertised before acceptance ” or simply called ABA, implies that the mark has been advertised in the weekly Trademark Journal, though with certain reservations. Once the mark gets advertised, the opposition period of four months begins during which the applicant has to wait and watch to check if the mark gets opposed!

Having written about assignment of trademarks in India in one of my earlier articles, I wanted to write about licensing in India as the two concepts can be confusingly similar to those who need to choose. Apart from pointing out the differences, this article also will comprehensively explain the concept of licensing of trademarks in India because we live in this era of globalization, where licensing has become so common for people who already have a big market for their trademark and for people…