Sound Board

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

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…

Yes you can unless there is proper policing done, you are highly likely to lose your trademark rights. In my previous article I had mentioned how getting your mark registered is just the first step to the long battle ahead because even if your trademark is approved, people can challenge and steal your trademark and can do so by legal means. It sure does sound oxymoronic; how can one “legally” steal something, but if you read on you’ll know exactly what I mean. So to put this in perspective,…

In my previous article on character merchandising, I mentioned that all of us have at some point been guilty of buying merchandise of our favorite characters but how many times do we stop to think if it’s actually being licensed from the creators of the work or whether they are just rip offs? Not very often. The point here is that we love the character and are so thankful that the creators came up with it, but when it comes to their revenue, we don’t really give it too much thought because it…

Filing an application or obtaining a registration is only the first step to the long battle ahead; because once the mark has been registered, the owner has to be more vigilant in protecting it in this era of "passing off". Here’s the thing, if you come across your mark which someone else is using, then don’t let it go by because if you don’t take an action soon you will not be able to act on it ever unless you are lucky enough to prove fraudulent usage on part of the other person. This post…