Protection
Legal Notices in Intellectual Property Right cases: A slippery slope?
More often than not, when a “bona fide” proprietor of the trademark (I use the term “bona fide” rather loosely here) finds unauthorized use of their mark by a third party, the first step taken (often) is to send the other party a legal notice. While some legal notices sent/received are convoluted…
Morality & IP – How far is too far?
“Intellectual property rights” is a paradox, where it promotes innovation and creativity, on the one hand, it might stagnate and monopolize ideas and business, on the other. With the development of human intelligence, complications also arose such that it became necessary to balance man’s…
Understanding the trademark distinctiveness spectrum
The primary purpose of a trademark is that it serves to distinguish the goods or services of one person from those of another. If a mark is not distinctive, it could lead to confusion in the minds of consumers and deceive them as to the origin of the product or service it represents. To prevent…
Why Startups need to protect their Intellectual Property before disclosing it
Intellectual Property – Creations of your Mind ‘A hundred and one wonders our mind holds, And out of it rarely a creation unfolds!’ Isn’t that true? Imagine you have created something ingenious, what we formally call “Intellectual Property” or simply IP, like a truly mind-blowing…
Copyright Protection for Photographers in India
Photographs are protected under copyright law as artistic work under Section 2 (c) of Copyright Act 1957 in India. Photographs are protected under the law of Copyright as it has been included as an artistic work. Although, the quality is immaterial to qualify the work as an artistic work [so a bad…
No Protection For Generic Domain Names
Given the augmenting cyberspace era, domain name disputes are on an ultimate rise and there have been numerous judgments pronounced on domain name disputes and majority of these disputes are focused on the interplay between trademarks and domain names. Last month we had reported a Bombay High Court…
No statutory protection for famous marks in terms of domain names
In the present era of widespread use of internet and domain names, the Bombay High Court recently pronounced a crucial judgement in the case of Raymond Ltd vs. Raymond Pharmaceutical Pvt Ltd, wherein it quoted: “The overall scheme of the Trade-marks Act does not provide for any statutory protection…