Sound Board

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

Copyright law never ceases to surprise us with its complex yet interesting issues that affect our day to day lives. About a week ago, the IP world was flooded with news that pictures of the Eiffel Tower taken at night would amount to infringement of copyright, however pictures taken during the day wouldn’t violate provisions of the copyright law in France. The European Union in 2001 issued a directive with respect to copyright law stating that photographs of buildings in public spaces can be…

The Fashion Industry is an Intellectual property intensive industry as it is that industry that involves continuous creation of new and innovative ideas that are commercially exploited. If you just look at your reflection in the mirror, you will find that you are literally wearing “ Intellectual Property ”. The brand that you are wearing is most probably protected under trademark law, the floral design or any other like pattern on the dress is a design and can be protected under the Designs law…

I had recently written about the importance of disclosing status of foreign applications to the Indian Patent Office and how non-compliance can result in revocation of patents under Section 64 (1) (m) of the Patents Act. The Delhi High Court on November 7, 2014 delivered a landmark ruling on Section 8 and clarified that non-compliance would not result in automatic revocation of patent and that the power of revocation under Section 64 (1) (m) was discretionary in nature.

“I could not afford to go to Delhi just to register my script” says Mr. Gopi, a script writer who recently filed a suit against the “Kaththi” director Murugadoss accusing him of stealing his script. I watched this very interesting interview of his where he says that he’s met with the director thrice and had discussed the script with the director’s assistant for years together. When asked if he had given his script prior to the release of the film, he replied in the affirmative and said that he…

During the British rule in India, Khadi was not just a cloth, it was a movement by Gandhiji where he promoted it as an ideology and instilled in the minds of Indians that they could be self-sufficient if they wore only khadi and that they needn’t rely on the high priced goods of the British. Over the years, khadi lost its hold on the Indian market and sales of khadi products became abysmal owing to the wide variety of cloths and garments available in the market.

The most common question arising now in the minds of people, especially entrepreneurs, is if it is not possible to apply for registering a trademark by themselves, without getting any assistance from a trademark lawyer. The misconception is that trademark application is nothing but a mere filling out of forms. But the most important question to ask is : “does the process end there..or on the contrary, begin there?”

I’m pretty certain that most people with Facebook accounts in India have seen the Prime Minister’s post on his Facebook page wishing people for Dhanteras on October 21, 2014. While the photograph was visually striking, it appears that someone who knew the photographer tagged him on the post since he didn’t know that his photograph was being used.

Shakespeare’s ‘what’s in a name’ was apt for utopian times when he was of the view that a rose would smell like a rose even if it were called by another name. Today, in the world of competition, when celebrities are trying to out-do each other in the race for fame and endorsements, trademark rights are significantly important. Lately, Shahrukh Khan has been in the news for reasons other than the release of his latest film Happy New Year. A number of newspapers recently reported that the actor’s…

We had recently written about an order that was passed by the Controller General of Patent, designs and Trademarks restricting the amendments that can be made to a trademark application and hoped that IPAA would appeal this matter. It has come to our notice that IPAA in fact took up this matter before the Delhi High Court and the Court quashed the order passed by the Controller General of Patent, Designs and Trademarks on October 9, 2014.

International Non-Proprietary Names (INN) are globally recognized names for pharmaceutical substances or active pharmaceutical ingredients and are also known as generic names. The International Non-Proprietary Names were first initiated by the World Health Assembly in 1950 with a view to designate universally recognisable names for pharmaceutical substances. In furtherance to this, the WHO has published a list of over 7000 generic names since its inception. The WHO guidelines states the…