Editorial Staff

Happy or Un-Happy Birthday – copyright over a famous song!

Songs form the corner stone of the music industry. Section 17 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 states that the author (composer and the lyricist in case of a song) is the first owner of the copyright. No one has the right to exploit a song unless the author of the song authorizes him/her to do so.…


Getting back your .com domain name through UDRP

In the present ever-evolving internet age, domain names have become an indispensable part of any business entity. Just as trademarks symbolize the brand name of a business or a product, domain names identifies or locates a business or a brand through the virtual world. With domains like iCloud.com…


Choose between India and France before creating your work !

If trademark laws are nearly similar in India and France, laws to protect a work in these countries are conversely very different. Designated as Copyright law in India and as Author’s Right in France, the two regimes endeavour, nonetheless, to answer to the same imperatives. The origin of this…


Indian Trademarks Office initiates E-Registration Certificates

The Indian Trademarks Office (TMO) today issued a pragmatic public notice regarding the automation of the entire process of generation and issuance of registration certificates. The notice states that from August 01, 2016 the entire process of generation and dispatch of registration certificates…


“Plain Packaging” a Trademark infringement?

Plain packaging refers to laws or regulations requiring cigarettes and other tobacco products to be sold in standardized or generic packaging, without any stylized or attractive trademarks, logos, brand names or colors. In place of such brand names or logos, the packaging would largely be dominated…


Why copyright in India should be considered an important asset

When one spends a considerable amount of time and effort in creating something, one should be made aware of the intellectual property protection that one could avail. Copyright is one such right that is made available to the creator of an original literary, dramatic, artistic, or musical work. Such…


Indian Trademark Office strikes again- Default notice to 9000 applications

Let’s brush our memories and remember the infamous order of the Indian Trademark Office abandoning more than one lakh trademark applications by end of March, 2016. The dreadful saga saw a lot of oppositions from trademark attorneys/agents across the country, a stay order from the Delhi High Court…


Exclusive rights to use trademark as a whole and not in parts

One of the well-established principles in Trademarks law has been the concept of comparing and considering a trademark in its totality. Many a times a trademark can be a composite trademark having various elements in it, and when the same is registered, the protection is provided to the mark as a…


Significant changes brought about by the Patent Amendment Rules, 2016

Following the publishing of the Draft Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2015 on October 26, 2015 for public comment and consideration, the Office of the CGPDTM has on May 14, 2016 issued a public notice on the publication of amended Patent Rules, 2003. Accordingly, the Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2016 were…


Mediation in cases pending before the Trade Marks Registry, Delhi

With the amount of pending matters piling up across the five Trade Marks Registry offices, desperate measures have been taken by the Registry to reduce the burden and for speedy disposal of all pending matters. As a welcome attempt to deal with the issue of pendency, the Controller General of…