Sound Board

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

As mentioned in my previous articles, the life of a trademark is ten years in India post which the mark requires to be renewed every ten years to keep the mark alive. Of course, the Trademark law requires the Trademark Office to notify the proprietor before the expiry of registration. Now the question that arises is :

Celebrities in India (particularly actors and film makers) have become extremely vigilant of their rights. There has been a considerable increase in the number of cases requesting for John Doe orders, recognition of celebrity rights and the number of trademark applications for the name of famous personalities have arisen. The Courts in many cases have recognized the concept of personality rights and have even decided cases when there has been unauthorized use of a personality’s name. However, a…

Did you know? By merely browsing a website on the internet, you have actually agreed to the website’s terms and conditions and privacy policy? Now that you are anyway bound by it by merely browsing the website, it would be best if you could actually go through it just to know the way in which your personal information which you may provide is going to be used. Just think about it. Okay other than our names I think everything else that we fill in on a standard log in form involves us disclosing…

Ever wanted to know the recipe for your favourite dish in a restaurant? Or wished that you could make Pringles at home? They wouldn’t be special or in demand anymore if you could do make it by yourself! This got me thinking on the best ways to protect food recipes and prompted me to write this article.

The efficiency of the Indian judiciary has been the subject of many a discussion at both professional and personal gatherings that I’ve attended. The media has covered the overwhelming case backlog and seemingly infinite expanse of time that it would take to clear them. Most often the general public believes that taking something to Court, would end up in a judgement approximately two decades later, orders that rarely benefit either side, a staid interpretation of the law and that the only…

Who does not love chocolates?But the British in America do not seem to be in for "any" chocolate; much to their dismay though.

Most of us use Google almost every day and intentionally or unintentionally, we look forward to seeing what the Google Doodle of the day would be! Well, that is the kind of impact that the constantly changing “Google” logo has created on the minds of its users. I personally am very fascinated with the Google Doodles and that got me wondering about the pros and cons of constantly changing the trademark.

In my previous article about trademarks, one of the important pointers I had mentioned was about “use” of the mark. Considering that usage of trademark plays a pivotal role in trademark disputes, almost a decider in cases, it is important to explore it. So what is usage in India? How have the Indian courts and tribunals interpreted usage? Do the marks certainly have to be used in India to prove usage? Let’s explore!

There’s no dearth for mobile applications on smartphones. There’s an app for everything today and you’ll definitely find one to meet your requirements. We’re spoilt for choices and that’s exactly the concern of every mobile application developer. They need to make sure that they stand out and create an app that is better than the ones that already exist. So what happens when someone copies a part of the app or clones the entire app? Is it an intellectual property infringement? This brings us to…