Raja Selvam
How Cadbury lost some of its trademarks in India
A little over 5 months ago, the IPAB’s order caught everyone by surprise. Cadbury, the company known very well indeed for Cadbury Eclairs, lost some of its marks consisting the term “Eclairs” without putting up much of a fight. Interestingly Cadbury’s loss was a foreseeable consequence of its own…
Of animals and trademarks
Use of animal representations or their names or both as trademarks (“animal marks”) is an intriguing concept. For one, except in some cases, animal marks prove to be arbitrary in application and therefore inherently distinct. However, most businesses like to represent themselves using majestic…
The Case of Choclairs
Cadbury and Lotte are famous brands for chocolates with Cadbury probably a little more famous in India since it has been around for quite a while. This fact may have been one of the many reasons why Cadbury could obtain an interim injunction against Lotte in January this year. Briefly, Cadbury…
Justice, naturally.
An order in January this year by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (“IPAB”) drives home a simple, much re-iterated and often neglected point of law: the right to be heard. Facts of the case Abraxis BioScience LLC (“Abraxis”) had filed a patent application in 2005 for “composition and method…
After Trademarks, it is now time for Copyright to decide on Parallel Imports
Proviso to Section 2(m) It is significant to note that this major initiative comes in the wake of the efforts by the Ministry of Human Resource Development Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee to insert the following proviso to Section 2(m)(dealing with “infringing copy”) of the…
Personalising your attacks? Mudslinging gets everyone dirty
I believe most lawyers feel parental about their clients’ rights. It is difficult not to when we put in so much effort into identifying, defining and protecting those rights. In doing so, more often than not, we come across some really nasty notices and briefs from lawyers we don’t even know and we…
Parodies and trademarks in India
By the time I'm in the studio recording my parody, 10,000 parodies of that song are on YouTube. - Weird Al Yankovic, a parodist among other things. The quote above might be a little misplaced since this article is about parodies of trademarks and their position in Indian law but Weird Al’s words…
A truly comprehensive e-filing system by Indian Trademarks Office
Following my earlier posts on this topic (see here and here) and after yesterday’s upgrade by the Indian Trademarks Office, the e-filing system (“system”) now has all the forms prescribed by the Trademarks Rules. This upgrade consists of requests relating to recordal, cancellation and other changes…
Intellectual Property Dispute: Brahmos ’ Head-On Collision With Fiit Jee Ltd!
For those of you who are wondering if they you have hit the wrong blog, please sit back. This is indeed about Intellectual Property and what I have referred to (in my title) is about the trademark ‘BRAHMOS’. As most of you would be aware, the term ‘BRAHMOS’ is quite popular in relation to…
More facilities through e-filing system for Patents
In yet another upgrade, the Indian Patent office has made available few more facilities through its e-filing system (“system”). In general these changes pertain to requests which do not have a prescribed form in the Patent Rules. Since the increase in official fee for paper filing, it is only…