Sound Board

Our thoughts and views on the practice of Intellectual Property in India and around the world.

The phrase “I’ll sue you” is one that many people love to use, without actually giving too much thought to whether legal action can in fact be taken and if so, whether it’ll be maintainable in a Court of Law. Lawyers take it a step further (in an attempt to make their client’s happy) by telling the other party that legal action will be taken against them if they do not comply or do what is necessary to be done. As a lawyer, it is pertinent to make sure your client is in the clear before…

The Gujarat High Court in a recent case has reaffirmed that trade channels, class of purchasers, the extent of reputation of the parties and all the other relevant factors play a crucial role in determining whether there has been an infringement or not. The decision was the result of taking into consideration the following facts;

I’m sure many of us, lawyers and trademark owners, would have come across examination reports that have required association between your mark and the applicant’s other marks (mostly). In cases where the mark that we have to associate it with has crossed its date of validity or has been withdrawn by the applicant, what happens then? While the law is silent on this point, the law of logic will kick in. Here I am going to mention few provisions of the law which in effect will say that both the…

A recent order by the Delhi High Court reiterates the importance of a carefully thought out and drafted agreements. This particular matter was one concerning breach of a franchise agreement which entailed confidential information, trade secrets, get-up, layout, arrangement, trade-dress of the Plaintiff’s fitness centres and spas. The Plaintiff (Ozone Fitness) filed a suit against Pure Fitness and others and sought an interim injunction. This case is definitely one of its kind given the nature…

There have been several instances where I've looked at a menu card at a pub with a really cool cocktail name and wondered if they've trademarked it. Never did I once imagine that the ones that are common and used by all are in fact the ones that are registered trademarks. So would use of these trademarks by restaurants and pubs in their menu card amount to trademark infringement? There are several possibilities in connection with this and before I get to that, here’s a list of cocktail names…

In my previous article, I’d written about how different aspects of the video game (story line, source code, characters, background music, screen shots, packaging) can be protected under the laws of copyright. In addition to this, there are different aspects of the trademark law that a game developer will have to keep in mind while creating a game is a world of unending possibilities.

Nowadays, the Internet has become the most popular medium for commercial organisations to promote themselves. This is because the internet has no boundaries or closing hours. Every person who wishes to use the internet as a medium needs a domain name. A domain name is nothing but a network address that helps identify a particular entity on the internet. Usually, a domain name consists of two parts – the top level domain (TLD), which is used to identify the organisation that owns it or the…