Editorial Staff
Amendment to the Design Rules in India
The Controller of Patents, Designs and Trademarks recently through a public notice dated January 2, 2015 brought to the notice of the public that the Design rules have been amended with effect from December 30, 2014. Apart from revising the forms and the fees, the most important amendment seems to…
First Draft of the National IPR Policy - What lies ahead for IP in India?
The first draft of the National IPR Policy dated December 19, 2014 was made available to the public amidst all the curiosity regarding the content of this policy and also the controversy concerning the basis of selection of the members of the Think Tank. We had earlier written about how the Think…
India’s first Semi-Conductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Application
A couple of months back we’d written about the basics of protection of Semi-Conductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design (SICLD) in India and more importantly how there hadn’t been a single application filed, or registered till date. The Semi-Conductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Registry had…
All I want for Christmas is ‘not’ Yu – Delhi High Court vacates the injunction against OnePlus
Micromax is the protagonist and OnePlus is the antagonist. And with due apology to Cyanogen: it is the villain says the Delhi High Court in its last judgment before Winter Vacation. Delhi High Court vacates the injunction against OnePlus Just before the Court’s winter recess, the Division Bench of…
Of Companies, Directors and Ownership of Patents
The Bombay High Court recently decided on the issue of ownership of patents. The suit was filed by a minority shareholder against the company, its managing director and other directors because the patents devised using the R & D of the company was in the name of the director and not the company…
The Micromax, Cyanogen and OnePlus dispute - ‘Nothing like anything’ we've seen, but they will ‘never settle’
Most of us are aware that Micromax launched its new series of smartphones under its CyanogenMod based Yu brand recently. But not all of us are aware that Micromax fought a tough battle to be the exclusive users of this version (CyanogenMod) of Android for its latest phones in India. After Xiaomi,…
Vulgar Trademarks - How comfortable would the Indian Trademark Registry have been with ‘Comfyballs’
Amidst the major IP disputes of the week, with Ericsson stopping Xiaomi over a patent dispute and the Supreme Court denying Bayer’s appeal against the compulsory license, there were quite a few articles on the USPTO’s rejection of a trademark application called “Comfyballs” to be associated with…
Protection for colours under the Trademark Law in India
All marketing techniques are aimed to capture the attention of the consumer and make an impact. A distinctive trademark with a catchy tag line and colour scheme is probably more likely to stay on the minds of the consumer. A number of marketing experts believe that colour is the most important…
The Curious Case of two Copied Patents and the Novelty of Transparency
The Calcutta High Court, in November had the opportunity to deal with a rather interesting patent dispute where one person tried invalidating a patent which was identical to his; when both of their patents seemed to be copied from a US Patent! As it turns out one Mr. Tara Chand Banka, filed a…
How to protect your music or art in India?
YouTube is filled with videos of people (budding artists!) singing songs of their favourite artists in their own style and giving it their personal touch or artists who are remixing songs. In the first scenario, it would be a most likely be cover version of the original song since the singer is…