Enforcement & Litigation
Perspectives on enforcement & litigation across India and the subcontinent.
27 June 2018
Trademark Infringement and Its Remedies in India
What counts as trademark infringement in India, who can sue, and what remedies exist? A clear rundown of the essential conditions, the civil, criminal and administrative remedies (injunctions, Anton Piller orders, damages), and why vigilance is the owner's job.
6 June 2018
Customs Recordal in India: Stopping Infringing Goods at the Border
Recording your IP with Customs turns the border into an enforcement point — once registered, importing infringing goods is deemed prohibited. The documents, bonds and information required, and the tight deadlines that apply once a consignment is suspended.
8 May 2018
Registering Your Brand with the Amazon Brand Registry
Amazon Brand Registry is free and gives sellers real tools against counterfeiters and listing hijackers. The catch is the eligibility requirement — historically a registered word mark, which is why what you file at the Registry determines what you can enrol later.
10 April 2018
Acting in Dual Capacity: Can an Advocate Also Be the Constituted Attorney?
Law firms often hold a power of attorney for non-resident clients and also appear as advocate on record. Indian courts say an advocate cannot do both in the same matter — but there is a clean way to structure it.
1 November 2017
Tamil Nadu Renames Video Piracy Cell as IP Rights Enforcement Cell
Tamil Nadu re-designated its Video Piracy Cell as the Intellectual Property Right Enforcement Cell — a first-of-its-kind single framework covering all IP. What the policy covers, why it matters to a piracy-hit Tamil film industry, and its limits.
19 July 2017
Carlsberg v. Som: How a Statement of Novelty Lost a Design Case
Carlsberg's novelty in its Tuborg bottle lay in the indentations. Its statement of novelty claimed the shape and configuration of the bottle as a whole — which already existed in prior art. The court read the statement literally, and the case failed.
Archana Selvam · 16 June 2017
Last-Minute Film Injunctions: The ₹5 Lakh Warning
A producer waited until three days before Phillauri's release to seek an injunction, having known the release date for a month. Justice Patel refused, found no genuine urgency, and imposed ₹5 lakh in costs — with a warning to everyone else doing the same.
7 April 2017
The Springboard Doctrine: Protecting Trade Secrets in India
India has no standalone trade secrets statute — protection comes from contract and equity. The springboard doctrine lets a business stop a former insider from using confidential information, even after it becomes public.
16 March 2017
Infringement vs Counterfeiting: What's the Difference?
All counterfeits infringe, but not all infringements are counterfeits. How Indian law distinguishes deceptively similar marks from exact fakes — and why the remedies (civil vs criminal) differ.
20 January 2017
When an INDRP Arbitrator Gets It Wrong: The thoughtworks.in Award Set Aside
An arbitrator refused Thoughtworks its own .in domain, holding it hadn't proved its trademark registrations — which were annexed to the complaint — and treating six years of delay against it. The Delhi High Court set the award aside under Section 34 for non-application of mind.
Navarre Roy · 14 November 2016
The Innocent Domain Squatter
A company registered five domains for a business line it later shelved. Years afterwards another company formed under one of those names, built a reputation, registered the trademark — and demanded the domain. It lost, because you cannot register in bad faith against a right that doesn't yet exist.
10 November 2016
Punitive Damages Denied: GSK Wins the Injunction, Not the Payout
GlaxoSmithKline stopped a company using 'GSK' for pharma products and won a permanent injunction — but the Delhi High Court refused punitive damages because GSK couldn't quantify its loss or the infringer's sales. A reminder that damages need evidence, not just a strong case.