Sound Board

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

My earlier post on how to register a trademark in India discussed the requirements and in brief the options you have to file an application for registration of a trademark in India. Over the last few weeks I have been receiving several emails and messages from entrepreneurs and start-ups enquiring about how the trademark registration process works in India and why even an IT major would find the Indian online trademark filing system complicated. Unfortunately I do not have an easy answer but I…

“What the hell are you doing?” was what I heard from my wife which jolted me, shook my phone and got the photo blurred. When I looked up, I realised that there were quite a few people staring at me. Sure this is India and there are hundreds of people stopping and staring at things at any given time, but I guess I did look strange. I was down on my knees trying to take a photograph of a pack of sanitary napkins from the bottom most shelves in the local supermarket. In my defence the packaging…

Identifying and choosing a suitable business/brand name is perhaps the first and the most important step towards creating your very own startup. A lot of time and effort goes into searching for and settling on a suitable name, and its equally, if not more important to protect that name. A brand name that you chose is not merely a name, but a reflection of the ideas, thoughts and relevance of the business symbolized by designs, logos, patterns, colours etc,.

The Indian Trademark Office has once again initiated a special drive from December 2013 to January 2014 for disposal of requests for recordal of post registration changes of registered Trademarks. The original notification is available here. The first such special drive was initiated earlier this year in January 2013 and after postponing it several times was put into action in March 2013. However, only a limited number of applications were cleared during this drive.

After a trademark application sails through the journey of examination, advertisement and opposition, it reaches the final and happy stage of registration. When the online status of a mark shows registered, it means, as the term suggests, the mark has obtained registration and the applicant becomes the legal owner/registrant of the said mark. A registration certificate mentioning the details of the trademark (including date of registration, registration number, Journal in which it was…

Britannia Industries Limited had filed an application for the trademark SNAX, which they had claimed to have been using from 1965. Britannia had already registered trademarks BRITANNIA SNAX for biscuits breads, buns etc in Class 30. The trademark application for the mark SNAX was published in the Trademarks Journal in 2005 and was opposed by PepsiCo on the grounds that the mark SNAX is snacks misspelt and since snacks was a common English word; it should not be registered as a trademark.

The case of trademark infringement and passing off was filed by EASYGROUP IP LICENSING LIMITED (the plaintiff) in respect of the alleged infringement and passing off by Easyjet Aviation Services Pvt Ltd. (the defendant).

Justice K.N. Basha, who recently retired as a judge of the Madras High Court, has been appointed as the chairman of Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). He succeeds Justice Prabha Sridevan, who retired from the post a few weeks back. At present S Usha has been deciding matters as the acting chairman.

I was referred to this article by one of my colleagues who got it on his RSS Feed. The article itself points to a recent order of the IPAB which “yet again chastised the Indian Trademark Registry in its Order dated 12th July”. Naturally my curiosity was piqued and I went on to read said Order.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry through the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has published a draft of the amendments to the Trademark Rules 2002 on August 01, 2013. A copy of the rules can be found here.