It is fairly common for trials in intellectual property law suits to get prolonged incessantly owing to delaying tactics adopted by one or more parties to such suits. One such practice is that of making unsubstantiated/blanket/bare denials of each and every plea/ document of the adverse party to a suit. Recently, a single judge bench […]

The rules governing trade marks in India underwent a sea of change in March 2017 with the advent of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 (“New Rules”) that replaced the erstwhile Trade Marks Rules, 2002 (“Old Rules”). One major change brought about by the New Rules was the omission of the wording “within such further period […]

This post is the second of the two-part series on certification marks in India. The previous post talked about the registration of certification marks in India. This post sheds light on the rights conferred on a proprietor of a certification mark, and the enforceability of such marks in India. A proprietor of a certification mark […]

Over the years, the Delhi High Court has come to be recognized as the most preferred court in India for filing trade mark suits, primarily because of judges who have exposure to, and understand, nuances of the applicable law. Generally viewed as pro-plaintiff, in recent times, this view appears to be changing, in particular because […]

Designs Under the law of designs in India, only the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours, applied to an article, in either two-dimensional or three-dimensional or both forms, are eligible for protection. Rights in a design accrue only on registration, which confers on its proprietor the exclusive right to […]

In a not-so-puzzling case of an unauthorized use of a trade mark as a film title, Justice G. S. Patel of the Bombay High Court restrained film maker Mahesh V. Manjrekar and others from releasing/ continuing to work on their forthcoming Marathi film bearing the title ‘Rubik’s Cube’ set to release on April 14, 2017. […]

It is not uncommon to see Defendants in trademark infringement law suits challenge the validity of the trademark registration(s) relied upon by Plaintiffs. For a trademark infringement claim to lie, the Plaintiff must have a trademark registration. Challenging the very validity of such a registration, in effect, threatens the claim of trademark infringement in the […]

Does registration of the individual components of your composite mark, alone, confer effective protection to your composite mark taken as a whole? Likewise, is the mere registration of your composite mark, without separate registrations for its constituent elements sufficient enough to enforce your rights in the constituent elements? Read on to find out the answers […]

Under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (hereinafter “the Act”), a trade mark includes a trade name. The Act states that a registered trade mark may be infringed owing to unauthorized use of the trade mark as a trade name or part of a trade name if the party accused of such unauthorized use is dealing […]