IPAB

Who will guard the guards (Intellectual Property Appellate Board)?

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board recently held hearings for trademark matters in July 2019. The cause list was sent on rather short notice and came as a surprise to many advocates since the IPAB currently doesn’t have a technical member for trademarks, and therefore should not be hearing…


Initiative by IPAB to expedite administrative proceedings

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board ("IPAB") was constituted by the Indian Government on September 15, 2003 to hear and adjudicate appeals against the decisions of the Registrar under the Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Indian Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and…


SNACKS will always be ‘some light food’ – IPAB denies Britannia the trademark SNAX

Appelant- M/s. Britannia Industries Limited Respondent- PepsiCo Inc. and the Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks Forum- Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) Facts Britannia Industries Limited had filed an application for the trademark SNAX, which they had claimed to have been using from 1965.…


Inexcusable fiasco by the IPAB - What exactly is the point of Order no. 156/2013?

I was referred to this article by one of my colleagues who got it on his RSS Feed. The article itself points to a recent order of the IPAB which “yet again chastised the Indian Trademark Registry in its Order dated 12th July”. Naturally my curiosity was piqued and I went on to read said Order. Much…


IPAB hauls up the Trademark Registry for a ‘classic case of official indifference’

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) passed an order a couple of days back, which brought on record the problems faced by trademark proprietors with the functioning of the Trademark Registry. They recently heard an appeal from an order of abandonment passed in an opposition matter along…