Sound Board

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

I originally wrote this post before the the 136th INTA annual meeting in Hong Kong (1st INTA annual meeting in Asia). Folks who have been attending the INTA meetings will agree as to how awesome it can be and yet tiring, which requires careful planning. I thought of putting down a few of my insights that can be useful in planning your INTA trip.

Planning to file do trademark registration but would like to know more about it before taking the plunge? Here are a few pointers.

I’d written about Trade Secrets a while back, and the only way to protect those secrets in India, (barring not revealing them to another soul) is through Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs).Non Disclosure Agreements are basically agreements signed between two people or entities which put down in writing that confidential information is being passed from one person to another, the nature of the information, the purpose and most importantly an undertaking from the person receiving the information…

Assignment of trademarks is a process in which the owner of the trademark transfers the ownership of the mark either with or without the goodwill of the business. We had earlier written about the procedure for assigning trademarks and also the key points that should be incorporated in an assignment deed from a practical perspective. There are times when assignment of trademarks can be complicated - rights to a particular trademark are jointly owned by two or more companies or when the rights…

Recently, the Bombay High Court heard two appeals together to rule on the same point of law, i.e., whether the Court could go into the question of validity of the registration of a trade mark at an interlocutory stage when the defendant takes up the defense of invalidity of registration of the plaintiff’s trademark in an suit of infringement.

The Controller of Patents, Designs and Trademarks recently through a public notice dated January 2, 2015 brought to the notice of the public that the Design rules have been amended with effect from December 30, 2014.

The first draft of the National IPR Policy dated December 19, 2014 was made available to the public amidst all the curiosity regarding the content of this policy and also the controversy concerning the basis of selection of the members of the Think Tank. We had earlier written about how the Think Tank came into being and the tasks that were entrusted to the panel. The DIPP Public Notice of November 13, 2014 had called upon interested persons to submit their comments on the National IPR…

A couple of months back we’d written about the basics of protection of Semi-Conductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design (SICLD) in India and more importantly how there hadn’t been a single application filed, or registered till date.

One of the important statuses in respect of a trademark, shown in the website of the Trademark Office is “opposed,” for the registration of the said mark becomes dependent on the outcome of the said opposition. The term “opposed” means that a third party, has found the mark objectionable primarily in light of Section 9 or 11 or both (and any other provisions of the Trademarks Act), intimates the same in writing to the Trademark Office and requests for its refusal. Section 21 of the Trademarks…

Micromax is the protagonist and OnePlus is the antagonist. And with due apology to Cyanogen: it is the villain says the Delhi High Court in its last judgment before Winter Vacation.