Trademarks
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…
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…
Trademark filings in India to get a tad more expensive
There are only two changes that have been notified which will amend the existing trademark rules and both relate to the increase in fees. The first change will be that the costs for filing a trademark application will increase to INR 4000 per class from the existing fee of INR 3500. The second…
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…
IPAB hauls up the Trademark Registry for a ‘classic case of official indifference’
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) passed an order a couple of days back, which brought on record the problems faced by trademark proprietors with the functioning of the Trademark Registry. They recently heard an appeal from an order of abandonment passed in an opposition matter along…
Unauthorised use of trade mark - How would you remedy it in India?
In Utopia, I believe competition among similar businesses would be healthy and fair. However, in the real world, the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest applies. We find that some wonderful businesses, with unique and sometimes well-established brands, end up in shambles because their…
Injunction against infringement - Delay of 10 years by the trademark office in amending records results in Plaintiff losing it's locus standi
Appellant - Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Limited Respondent - Wockhardt Limited Trademarks in dispute - METO vs. METOX Court - Madras High Court Coram - Honourable Justice M. Jaichandren and Honourable Justice M. M. Sundresh Facts: The appellant is a company incorporated under the…
Single class or Multi Class trademark application in India?
I wish there was an easy answer. Unfortunately, there isn’t. Indian Trademarks Law allows filing of multi class applications. If you are using a counsel you may be advised by your counsel to file single class applications, not because he wants to bill you more; because the benefits of single class…
What does it mean when a TM-61 alert is issued for my trademark application by the Indian Trademark Office?
If you had filed your trademark application on paper in India with specification of goods or services exceeding 500 characters and if an application requesting inclusion of additional characters was not filed at the time of filing the new application for registration of your trademark, a TM-61…