Sound Board

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

The Bombay High Court recently decided on the issue of ownership of patents. The suit was filed by a minority shareholder against the company, its managing director and other directors because the patents devised using the R & D of the company was in the name of the director and not the company itself. At the outset, it seemed like a straight-forward case, however on reading the judgment, it was interesting to see how the Court took into consideration a number of other factors (which would…

Amidst the major IP disputes of the week, with Ericsson stopping Xiaomi over a patent dispute and the Supreme Court denying Bayer’s appeal against the compulsory license, there were quite a few articles on the USPTO’s rejection of a trademark application called “Comfyballs” to be associated with the sale of men’s underwear. The application was rejected on the ground that the mark was vulgar.

All marketing techniques are aimed to capture the attention of the consumer and make an impact. A distinctive trademark with a catchy tag line and colour scheme is probably more likely to stay on the minds of the consumer. A number of marketing experts believe that colour is the most important elements of branding and rightly so, because a number of brands can be recognized solely on the basis of the colour. Christian Louboutin shoes with the red sole and Cadbury with its purple packaging are…

The Calcutta High Court, in November had the opportunity to deal with a rather interesting patent dispute where one person tried invalidating a patent which was identical to his; when both of their patents seemed to be copied from a US Patent!

YouTube is filled with videos of people (budding artists!) singing songs of their favourite artists in their own style and giving it their personal touch or artists who are remixing songs. In the first scenario, it would be a most likely be cover version of the original song since the singer is retaining the lyrics and the musical arrangement but singing it in his own style. However, in the case of remixes, the artist is changing the musical arrangement by adding beats, lyrics and a few notes,…

The term ‘marked for exam’ implies that a trademark application has been taken up for examination or is due to be examined shortly by the Trademark Office. The term “examination” per se means that the particular trademark would be examined to see if it satisfies and overcomes the objections enunciated in the Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999( what we call “absolute and relative grounds” under Section 9 and 11), only after which it proceeds to advertisement and ultimately registration.

There have been too many copyright issues in the recent times, either between the producer or the director of the film with regard to ownership of copyright or between say, a scriptwriter and the director. This got me thinking about the rights of the different people who contribute toward making a movie, well a complete movie. There is the music composer, the lyricist, the sound recorder, the record label company to name a few who are individuals who come up with creative ideas and turn them…

Almost every morning most of the dailies these days carry at-least one article on intellectual property, whether it is about scriptwriters fighting producers on copyright for their stories or celebrities registering their names as trademarks, or the major issue of patents and drugs. As an IP lawyer, it’s great to see that there is some mention of my line of work, despite the fact that most journalists interchange the use and concepts of trademarks, copyright, patents and designs. Nonetheless it…

The popular misconception is that the symbol ™ can only be used after a trademark has been applied for registration and not otherwise.