Trademarks
Perspectives on trademarks across India and the subcontinent.
29 July 2016
India's Trade Marks Office Moves to E-Registration Certificates
From August 2016, the Trade Marks Office automated the generation and dispatch of registration certificates, issuing them by email instead of post. What the change covers, the pre-requisites a mark must meet, and why it matters.
26 July 2016
Plain Packaging for Tobacco: Is It Trademark Infringement?
Plain packaging strips logos, colours and stylised marks from tobacco packs, leaving only a brand name in uniform type beside large health warnings. Tobacco companies call it an expropriation of trademark rights. India has gone as far as 85% pictorial warnings — but not plain packaging.
8 July 2016
You Own the Whole Mark, Not Its Parts: Section 17 and Composite Trademarks
Registering a composite trademark gives you rights in the mark as a whole — not in each word inside it. Why 'UltraTech' couldn't stop 'Dalmia Ultra', and how to protect a key element.
31 May 2016
Mediation for Trademark Disputes Pending Before the Delhi Registry
To clear its opposition and rectification backlog, the Delhi Trade Marks Registry — with the Delhi State Legal Services Authority — launched a mediation pilot: 500 consenting matters referred to mediation. How the reference works, and why it signals ADR arriving in Indian IP.
6 May 2016
Virtual Property and IP Rights: Who Owns the Sword You Bought?
Players invest years and real money in virtual characters, items and land — and have almost no recourse when those are taken. Copyright ownership is contested between player and studio, trademark law reaches virtual goods, and Indian law still has no dedicated answer.
18 April 2016
The 2016 Mass Abandonment: How Wrongly Abandoned Marks Were Revived
In March 2016 the Trade Marks Registry abandoned applications en masse, including many where replies had been filed. After a Delhi High Court writ, a notification set aside abandonment orders passed after 20 March 2016 and reopened the door to filing replies.
18 April 2016
Auctioning the Kingfisher Trademarks: What a Brand Is Really Worth
Banks put nine Kingfisher airline trademarks on the block at over ₹360 crore to recover a ₹2,000-crore loan. No one bid. The episode is the clearest lesson India has had in how trademarks work as collateral — and why a mark's value cannot be separated from the business behind it.
29 March 2016
When Trans-Border Reputation Spills Into India: The LAVERA Case
A German cosmetics brand, LAVERA, stopped an Indian company using its mark — even though it had never sold in India. How the Delhi High Court applied trans-border reputation, the two elements it requires, and why multi-country registrations strengthen the claim.
21 March 2016
IP and Blogging: A Blogger's Guide to Staying on the Right Side
'Nobody reads my blog' is no defence to copyright infringement. A practical guide for bloggers — write in your own words, clear or credit images, avoid trademarked names and logos, and lean on originality (and your own photos) to keep your blog IP-friendly.
Raja Pannir Selvam · 15 March 2016
The Trademark Clearance Search: The Most Underrated Step
Startups regularly receive a cease and desist notice weeks after launch, and find their social pages and app listings pulled without warning. Nearly all of it is preventable by a search that costs a fraction of the rebrand it avoids.
11 March 2016
When an Injunction Isn't Enough: Enforcing It Against a Defiant Infringer
You won the injunction — and the infringer ignored it. Indian law arms you with attachment of property, civil detention and contempt of court. The tools that put teeth behind an order.
1 March 2016
Trademark Squatting: Is India a Safe Haven?
IKEA lost its mark in Indonesia to a company with a conveniently matching acronym, after three years of non-use. Burger King faced a domestic chain in India challenging a 1979 registration. The pattern is consistent — and India's law is less permissive than it looks.