In-depth analytical articles on Indian IP law including prosecution,enforcement, statutory interpretation and case developments
A patent, at its core, is a bargain between the inventor and the state. The inventor discloses the invention to the public in full; the state, in return, grants a limited monopoly for twenty years. The value of that monopoly depends entirely on how effectively it can be enforced. An unenforceable patent right is no […]
The relationship between an author and a publisher is among the oldest and most commercially consequential in the creative economy. It is a relationship built on a fundamental asymmetry: the author possesses the creative work and the copyright that protects it, while the publisher possesses the infrastructure, expertise, distribution networks and capital required to bring
Social media has fundamentally transformed the relationship between copyright law and everyday human behaviour. Before the internet, the act of reproducing, distributing or communicating a copyrighted work to the public was largely confined to publishers, broadcasters and commercial enterprises with the infrastructure to do so at scale. Copyright infringement was, for the most part, a
Copyright Issues in Social Media and User-Generated Content Read More »
Every grant of exclusive rights must, in a society that values both the reward of creative effort and the freedom of public access to culture and knowledge, have a defined limit. Copyright is no exception. The rights that the Copyright Act, 1957 confers upon authors, producers, performers and broadcasters are not permanent. They subsist for
Copyright Duration – Rules for Different Categories of Works under Indian Law Read More »
The question of whether a collection of information facts, data, references, records or other pre-existing material assembled into an organised whole deserves intellectual property protection is among the most contested and practically consequential in copyright law. At its core, it forces a direct confrontation with the foundational tension between two equally legitimate values: the interest
Copyright in Databases and Compilations under Indian Law Read More »
Few questions in contemporary intellectual property law have generated as much urgency, as much disagreement and as much genuine legal uncertainty as the question of who if anyone owns the copyright in a work generated by artificial intelligence. The question is not merely academic. Generative AI systems now produce novels, compose music, paint images, write
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence – Who Owns AI-Generated Works? Read More »
No concept in Indian trademark law is more frequently litigated, more extensively analyzed in judicial decisions or more consequential in its practical application than deceptive similarity. It is the standard by which the Trade Marks Registry determines whether a pending application conflicts with an earlier registration, the criterion by which courts assess whether an allegedly
Deceptive Similarity The Legal Test Under Indian Trademark Law Read More »
Among the most commercially significant and doctrinally complex questions in contemporary Indian trademark law is the extent to which the visual and physical appearance of a product or its packaging its trade dress can be protected as a trademark. In a marketplace saturated with competing products, the overall commercial appearance of goods has become one
Trade Dress and Product Shape as Trademark in India Read More »
The history of trademark law is, in significant part, a history of expanding frontiers. What began as a system designed to protect word marks and simple devices the merchant’s mark stamped on goods to identify their origin has evolved over centuries into a framework broad enough, in principle, to accommodate almost any sign capable of
Colour Marks, Sound Marks and Non-Traditional Trademarks in India Read More »
Of all the categories of marks that traverse the trademark registration process in India, descriptive marks present the most nuanced and intellectually demanding set of questions. They occupy the contested middle ground of the distinctiveness spectrum neither inherently protectable like fanciful or arbitrary marks, nor wholly beyond protection like generic terms and their treatment reveals,
Descriptive Marks and the Acquired Distinctiveness Doctrine in Indian Trademark Law Read More »