Raja Selvam

Choosing the right brand name for your startup

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…


Indian Trademark Office re-initiates special drive to dispose post registration requests

According to the Notification the names of the officers responsible will be published by the TMO shortly and it is also pertinent to note that no separate hearing notices would be issued by the TMO. The Trademark Office has requested that the proprietors or their counsels should present the…


Indian Patent Law basics - Importance of filing the Statement of Working of Patents in India

If you ask any patent agent or attorney to explain the concept of patents in two words, they will tell you that it is an “exclusionary right”. As is true in law and life, with rights come duties and responsibilities.  So when you are given the right to exclude others from making your patent…


Indian Patent law basics – Patent Application procedure

Before all else, I would like to clarify that this article does not deal with how to get a patent in India. This article merely describes the procedure for making a patent application in India. The decision to provide a person with a patent is purely an administrative matter of the Indian Patent…


Indian Patent law basics - Disclosure requirements of Indian patent application's foreign counterparts

The Indian law for Patents, more particularly Section 8(1) of the Patents Act, 1970 (the “Act”), requires that when a person makes an application for patent in India, he must undertake to inform the Indian Patent Office regarding foreign applications which correspond to its Indian counterpart.…


Trademark Application Status “Registered” - Explained

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…


Physical presence of your goods or services is not required to protect your trademark in India

The plaintiff is a company offering air travel services primarily in Europe and the United Kingdom. They do not operate or fly on any routes in India. However, they own the trademark “easyJet” registered in India in respect of transportation of goods, passenger and travellers by air; airline and…


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Retired Madras High Court Judge K.N.Basha to head Intellectual Property Appellate Board

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…


Inexcusable fiasco by the IPAB - What exactly is the point of Order no. 156/2013?

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. Much…


Amendments to the Indian Trademarks Law – What does this mean to you?

The Trade Marks (Amendment) Act 2010 and the Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2013 came in to force on July 08, 2013. In principle the amendment marks the official entry of India to the International Filing System under the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid system enables Indian businesses to file a single…