Trademarks
Will the auctioning of trademarks bring back the good times for Kingfisher?
The abandonment of trademarks by the Registry and the events that ensued did steal the spotlight from another trademark issue that has come out at the same time. Right after the (for the lack of a better word) flight of Kingfisher’s Vijay Mallya, the banks have been in a fix trying to recover the…
Indian Trademark Office strikes back - Sets 25 day countdown to reinstate 1,66,771 abandoned applications
In furtherance to the recent commotion caused by the Trade Marks Office abandoning more than 1,60,000 trademark applications overnight, the Office of the Controller General Patents, Designs and Trademarks has issued a Public Notice dated April 04, 2016 to apparently tranquilize the situation. As…
Indian Trademark Office abandons 1,66,771 Trademark Applications
Note: At the outset, please note that this is not an April Fool's joke! This is very real, though the timing of it is unfortunate. The end of the financial year in India, generally has companies on edge. Accounts teams rushing to make sure all amounts are tallied, outstanding bills are sought after…
Trans-border reputation spills over to India
Reputation of a trademark implies to the knowledge and awareness of such trademark among the public and is the means by which a trademark is recognized. With globalization of trade and commerce, products are widely available in every nook and corner of the world irrespective of their place of…
Trademark Search: The cornerstone for your brand's success
Trademark Search: In addition, to creating a strong trademark as your brand, it is important to ensure that the trademark you have created as your brand is not used by anyone else across the world. Though trademark law is territorial, with the advent of the Internet and mobile technology, the world…
If the Indian Govt has its way, trademark fees to increase by 100%
In continuation of our previous post on the draft Trade Marks (Amendment Rules) 2015 issued by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on November 19, 2015, here’s the latest update on the proposed amendments. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of…
The Case of the Early Bird and Trademark Squatting
Let’s take a huge scoop of hypothesis and say that, Ben and Jerry ice-creams forgot to register their trademark in India, and in 2016 when they tried to come into the Indian market they see that there has already been a trademark registered for Ben and Jerry in India, by one Mr. X. What Mr. X did…
Trademark Infringement and Jurisdiction – What it means to carry on business
Trademark law in India provides that a plaintiff can file a suit for trademark infringement in a district court within the jurisdiction where the plaintiff is actually and voluntarily residing or carrying on business or personally working for gain. It is a common phenomenon for the defence to…
Trademark and Startups: 4 Frequently Asked Questions
When starting a business I’m sure there are a multitude of questions that go through every entrepreneur’s mind. Barring the basic questions of whether or not to go ahead with launching something, on the trademark front there are a couple of questions that keep cropping up. In this post, I’ve…
Parallel Imports – The Exhaustive World of Trademarks
Brand owners often find parallel importation as one of the key issues facing their businesses. Their hard earned reputation is at stake when their goods are sold by dealers who are not authorized to do so. It is also referred to as “grey market” for the reason that the goods imported and sold are…