Sound Board

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

We’ve all come across counterfeit products of popular brands and first copies. People have taken it one step further by selling products under the brand name of well-known trademarks like Facebook, Whatsapp and the like on clothing, food stalls and what not. There are a two possibilities; either it is a case of blatant trademark infringement and passing off or it is the lack of awareness. The latter suggests that a person manufacturing and selling such goods with well-known trademarks has no…

The Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi says it is, after having ruled in favour of “International Exhaustion” in the case of Kapil Wadhwa vs. Samsung Electronics Ltd., the only latest case available on the Doctrine of Exhaustion in India. So the bundle of exclusive rights granted to a trademark holder does not seem to include the fact that they cannot restrain parallel importers of those products who exploit this doctrine to benefit themselves.

Over the last few decades, the world economy has witnessed a paradigm shift as far as transaction of goods and services are concerned. Companies have expanded their business operations and established their manufacturing units across the globe and services have traversed boundaries, which has in effect led to the upswing of branding. Intellectual property plays a pivotal role in the trade related aspects and trademark law in such cases comes into play when issues regarding registration of mark…

A year ago, we wrote about the tentative amendment to the Trademark Rules which involved the increase in filing fees.The Trademark Rules have been Amended and published in the Official Gazette of India issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

So you’ve planned and taken all necessary precautions before filing or instructing your Counsel in India to file your trademark application in India and it has been filed, and now you’re waiting. (Also see 4 steps to register a trademark in India – The fast and cost effective way) While the trademark office has taken it upon itself to teach all counsels how much of a virtue patience is, on some occasions they may not be at fault. It may well be, that the trademark office is in fact waiting on…

In 1996, Siddharth Mehta launched an online matchmaking, matrimonial and wedding services portal under the name and mark Shaadi.com. Four years later in February 2000, the Plaintiff was incorporated. The Plaintiff belongs to the People Group of Companies. They own several well-known domain names, websites, brands and trademarks. One of these is Shaadi.com.

One of the main benefits of working as an intellectual property lawyer is that I get to know the latest in everything. Whether it is the latest technology through patents, products through brand names and designs or movies/songs/art etc through copyright, I get to live vicariously in the present and near future through my clients. Oddly enough, this level of knowledge as a natural extension seems to extend to the latest slang!

Copyright in any literary, artistic, dramatic or cinematographic work comes into effect when the work is created. So if one takes a photograph or paints a picture, for all purposes the copyright begins from the time the work is created irrespective of its artistic quality. One can scribble on a paper and have copyright over that work! Would that person have any objection if someone else used their work on a social media platform or a blog they wrote? That’s where the law comes into play. In…

The issue dates back to 2nd February, 2012 and 8th June, 2012 when the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CG) issued an Office Order No: 1 of 2012 and Office Order No:16 of 2012 respectively, that placed restrictions on amendments that can be made to a trademark application, more importantly the restriction in respect of amending the date of usage of the trademark in India.

As discussed in an earlier post, it is mandatory for owners of establishments to obtain copyright licenses in order to play music on their premises. In this way the law seeks to regulate the issuance of such licenses through creation of Copyright Societies under Section 33 of the Act, thereby making it easier for people to get the required licenses. However, there is also a provision under Section 30 by which copyright owners can grant licenses on their own or through duly authorized agents.…