Sound Board

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

In 1996, Siddharth Mehta launched an online matchmaking, matrimonial and wedding services portal under the name and mark Shaadi.com. Four years later in February 2000, the Plaintiff was incorporated. The Plaintiff belongs to the People Group of Companies. They own several well-known domain names, websites, brands and trademarks. One of these is Shaadi.com.

One of the main benefits of working as an intellectual property lawyer is that I get to know the latest in everything. Whether it is the latest technology through patents, products through brand names and designs or movies/songs/art etc through copyright, I get to live vicariously in the present and near future through my clients. Oddly enough, this level of knowledge as a natural extension seems to extend to the latest slang!

Copyright in any literary, artistic, dramatic or cinematographic work comes into effect when the work is created. So if one takes a photograph or paints a picture, for all purposes the copyright begins from the time the work is created irrespective of its artistic quality. One can scribble on a paper and have copyright over that work! Would that person have any objection if someone else used their work on a social media platform or a blog they wrote? That’s where the law comes into play. In…

The issue dates back to 2nd February, 2012 and 8th June, 2012 when the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CG) issued an Office Order No: 1 of 2012 and Office Order No:16 of 2012 respectively, that placed restrictions on amendments that can be made to a trademark application, more importantly the restriction in respect of amending the date of usage of the trademark in India.

As discussed in an earlier post, it is mandatory for owners of establishments to obtain copyright licenses in order to play music on their premises. In this way the law seeks to regulate the issuance of such licenses through creation of Copyright Societies under Section 33 of the Act, thereby making it easier for people to get the required licenses. However, there is also a provision under Section 30 by which copyright owners can grant licenses on their own or through duly authorized agents.…

The Plaintiff had filed a suit for permanent injunction restraining the defendant from selling, distributing, advertising or dealing in alcoholic beverages especially Indian made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) or goods of any description bearing trade mark 'Collector's Choice' or any other mark deceptively similar to plaintiff's trade mark 'Officer's Choice'.

Lawyers in general are not the most loved people on the planet. There is always a sense of caution when we’re dealt with. It’s also probably why the legal profession has two patron saints St. Ives and St. Thomas Moore (must be twice as difficult for us to get into heaven). Anyway leaving God and the Saints out of it, in any Company (more so in an FMCG one) the In-House legal team is generally disliked to a great extent by the Marketing team and are at loggerheads with each other on a fairly…

A recent study conducted by ‘We Are Social’ found that despite these slow speeds, Internet users in India spend almost 5 hours on the net every day, with 40% of that time spent on social media. Going by these statistics, Indian users roughly spend about 2 hours on social media and which platform they use will probably differ based of age, profession and purpose for use. So those of us who fit this description and spend most of those 2 hours on Facebook, would have come across several internet…

Champagne, Puma, Darjeeling Tea and Ford are known all over the world. A common man would recognize the given names as famous brands. On looking closely it can be realized that the above mentioned names do not belong to the same category.

The facts narrated in one of recent orders of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) send out one clear signal: constant vigilance!