Sound Board

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

Trademark law is incongruous, and it fails to manage all the interests at stake in the avant-garde business environment. Trademark professionals worldwide have turned their attention to the power of social media and its effects on trademarks and brands. What was once considered to have a benign impact on brands is now a challenge to overcome for many trademark owners. The challenge for trademark owners in social media environments is not so much brand confusion, but rather in dealing with and…

A spiritual man’s trademark is his true belief in God. But what if the man tries to trademark the God he believes in? Imagine waking up in a world where Trusts have exclusive right over images of popular deities; getting booked under s. 29 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (hereinafter TM Act 1999) for selling an idol of Lord Hanuman or being unable to purchase a Shri Ganesha calendar from your local vendor because the image is trademarked by a specific company. The question arises - is this really…

The concept of trademark series is relatively new in the arena of Intellectual Property Law. The development of this species of trademark has recently gained pace, and is expected to provide a whole new level of trademark protection for the world’s big and small industrial houses. Though most nations have a provision or two regarding the registration of trademark series, in the trademark law operating within their respective territorial limits, including India,Bridge/Bainbridge decision of the…

An Internet domain name is an alpha-numeric mnemonic device that can be mapped onto an Internet Protocol ("IP") address to enable users to "surf the Web" more easily than if they had to remember the details of each IP address they wanted to visit. Black’s Law Dictionary defines domain names as the words and characters that website owners designate for their registered Internet addresses. All domain names have at least two levels. The first level domain name identifies the registrants. The…

If you, like me, were a kid of the 90s, you would instantly recall the hit song from being played to death on the radio and at every other birthday party! Funnily enough, this song was also quite the number amongst intellectual property pundits. Confused? Let me explain.

Passing off is a form of tort, and its substantive part is founded upon the common law principles. The general principle of passing-off states that no man can have any right to represent his goods as the goods of another person. The gist of the concept of passing-off is that the goods are, in effect, telling a falsehood about themselves; they are saying something about themselves which is calculated to mislead. The spirit of law contemplates that unfair competition destroys honest business and…

Infopreneurship is the new buzz word and means creating original content information products then monetizing it in entrepreneurial ways. These infopreneurs, or entrepreneurs who sell information, leverage information in public domain extensively to reach mass audiences. Infopreneurship is one of a kind and an evolving business concept based on a title of a creative work.

It is the inherent purpose of law to serve as an instrument for the betterment of humanity. But in a quest for majoritarian or popular law, sometimes we tend to overlook an important section of people who need protection of our laws the most, namely the disabled. The law relating to trademarks is a similarly unexplored area of law where disability rights are yet to leave their mark. Cutting to the chase, here’s my argument regarding as to how a non-conventional trademark of smell guarantees not…

It is human nature to take credit of his hard work, especially in today’s times where there is cut throat competition; Man wants to carve a niche for himself in any field he plunges into. Man wants to stand out in a crowd and leave a mark of his identity and distinctiveness. He wants to convey a message to this world to the effect that, the feat he has achieved is something which is not achievable by everyone. In the field of trade in particular, quality is of utmost importance because a…

In today’s world, where consumers purchase products not based on quality or usefulness, but instead are carried away by the brand name and trade symbol which accompany the product, protection of the distinctiveness of a trademark is of the utmost importance. Trademark dilution is a claim which the owner of a famous trademark can make to prevent others from using a mark which decreases the value or distinctiveness, or tarnishes the reputation, of the famous mark. Many scholars argue on whether…