Trademarks
Intellectual Property made easy: Trademarks vs Geographical Indicators
Champagne, Puma, Darjeeling Tea and Ford are known all over the world. A common man would recognize the given names as famous brands. On looking closely it can be realized that the above mentioned names do not belong to the same category. Champagne and Darjeeling Tea can be categorized under…
Hiring distributors to sell your products in India? IPAB advises constant vigilance
The facts narrated in one of recent orders of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) send out one clear signal: constant vigilance! What is the case about? Pasco Sports (Pasco) traded in sports related goods and claimed to have adopted and used the trademark PAMA since 1994. Between 2002…
Trademark Examination Reports and their Replies – Trademark Law in India
The trademark registration process, which we have covered in an earlier post is fairly straightforward. A trademark application is filed, examined by the Trademark office, either refused or allowed subject to a hearing, advertised and registered if it is not opposed. In this post, I’ve decided to…
Trademark : One for all, all fight over one.
Petitioner: Mr. DarshanKumar Respondent: Mr. Ranjit Kumar Sharma (Respondent 1) and The Registrar of Trademarks (Respondent 2) Trademark: BAWA/BAWA FEED Decision making Authority: IPAB Facts: The Petitioner Sri Darshan Kumar started a partnership firm along with Sri Ranjit Kumar Sharma (Respondent)…
Trademark application status 'Objected' Explained
The term 'objected' implies that the particular trademark application has been examined and a report generated as well, laying down the objections against the registrability of the mark. Once a trademark application is filed, the first step in its journey to registration would be examination of the…
Trademark Application Status "Exam Report Issued" - Explained
Many a time, the online status of a mark shows ‘ exam report issued ,’ perceiving which, one might assume that it implies ‘issuance of examination report’ post examination of the mark. But in reality, the said status is being used by the Trademark Office to denote that the mark has been ordered to…
Trademark Injunctions and Damages in India – Part Three
In my earlier posts (here and here), I discussed the position of law on injunctions, the requirements for grant of temporary injunction and relevant cases with respect to trademarks in India. So let’s assume that we managed to restrain the defendants from using our trademark, what next? We want the…
Tirunelveli or Irruttukadai Halwa - GI or Trademark
The year 2014 has witnessed a lot of goods entering the family of Geographical Indicators ( GI ). Goods such as Madurai Malli (jasmine), Pattamadai Pai (Pattamadai mat), Nachiarkoil Kuthuvilakku (Nachiarkoil lamp), Toda Embroidery, Thanjavur Veena and Chettinad Kottan (palmyra basketry) have all…
Trademark Injunctions and Damages in India – Part Two
In my last post, I dealt with the first condition i.e. ‘prima facie case’ to be established when praying for a grant of temporary injunction. It is only when all the three conditions are fulfilled that the Court will take into consideration the prayer of temporary injunction. As in the case of…
The Tea Board vs ITC Limited – Going overboard with GI
Appellant: The Tea Board, India Respondent: ITC, Limited GI: Darjeeling Tea Decision making Authority: Division Bench of Kolkata High Court Facts: The Tea Board of India holds the famous GI “Darjeeling” and the logo of a woman holding tea leaves, as well as the certification trade mark…