India

Trademark Genericide

A trademark can be referred to as a recognizable sign, word or symbol that can be used to denote and distinguish a specific product or service from others. It can be a word, logo, sound, color or slogan that helps associate a product or service to the company that is manufacturing or providing the…


Metso Outotec Corporation v. the Registrar of Trade Marks

Background The Bombay High Court on October 6, 2021, set aside and quashed the decisions of the Senior Examiner of Trade Marks refusing the mark “SISUPER”. In Metso Outotec Corporation v. the Registrar of Trade Marks, appeals were preferred before the Bombay High Court from orders passed by the…


Britannia Industries v. ITC Ltd & Ors - Deceptively dissimilar?

The Delhi High Court on April 5, 2021 dismissed two applications filed by Britannia Industries against ITC Ltd for alleged trademark infringement and passing off by, Case 1: ITC's ‘Sunfeast Farmlite 5-SeedDigestive’ biscuits of Britannia’s ‘NutriChoice Digestive’ biscuits Case 2: ITC’s ‘Sunfeast…


The dire need for a Post Registration Trademark Audit Program in India

The USPTO’s Post Registration Audit Program Under the USA’s Post Registration Audit Program, a declaration of use must be filed between the fifth and sixth year of the validity of the registration of the trademark. Consequently, a mark may be selected at random, and an audit may be carried out…


Seeking Injunction in a Suit of Infringement and Passing off - Trademarks

Infringement & Passing Off The rights and remedies available under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 are not only limited to registered marks but also extend to unregistered marks. On one hand, an action for infringement provided for under Section 29 of the Act involves establishing issues such as…


Revisiting Copyright law and Artificial Intelligence – Part 2

In the part one of this article, here, we discussed about the general understanding of AI divided as ANI and AGI, ANI’s adoption and influence in the copyright law, and complexities arising out of the adoption of ANI while generating copyrightable works. Further, let us understand the intricacies…


Keyword Advertising and Trademarks

In this day and age, internet is a powerful tool for advertising with limitless reach and keyword advertising is the most popular form of digital advertising. It has generated massive revenue streams for search engines offering the service, for instance, Google’s ad revenue amounted to US dollars…


Recategorization of Patent Applicants and Implementation Barriers to Rule 7(3) of The Patents Rules 

The Patents (Second Amendment) Rules, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘amendment rules’) that came into force on November 4, 2020, primarily recategorized the Applicants and the fees paid by them for filing and prosecution of a patent. Presently, the amendment has classified applicants into…


Revisiting Copyright law and Artificial Intelligence – Part 1

What is Artificial intelligence? Simply put Artificial intelligence (AI) is non biological intelligence. But what is ‘intelligence’? Well, there is no conclusive answer to the definition of ‘intelligence’ and over the years there is no agreement even among AI researchers on the definition of…


Delhi High Court creates Intellectual Property Division

As you may recall, the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021 was promulgated by the President of India and notified on April 4, 2021. It amended several acts relating to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), effectively abolished various Boards/Tribunals…