In-depth analytical articles on Indian Trademark law including prosecution,enforcement, statutory interpretation and case developments.
A registration certificate looks like the end of an argument. It is issued by the Registrar, it is entered on a public register, and it carries the statutory presumptions of validity. Yet Indian trademark law has never treated registration as the last word on who owns a mark. The Trade Marks Act, 1999 sits alongside
A trademark registration in India is a conditional grant. The Trade Marks Act, 1999 confers a monopoly in the mark so long as the mark does the work for which the monopoly exists, namely to indicate the commercial origin of goods or services in the market. A proprietor who obtains registration and then leaves the
Non-Use of Trademarks in India: Section 47, Genuine Use and Cancellation Proceedings Read More »
The Madrid Protocol represents the single most significant reform to India’s international trademark posture since the enactment of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 itself. For an Indian applicant seeking to protect a brand across multiple jurisdictions, the pre-Madrid alternative was a country-by-country filing exercise involving separate national applications, separate local agents, separate fee structures and
The Madrid protocol – International trademark registration for Indian application Read More »
Trademark coexistence agreements occupy a sophisticated and commercially consequential space within Indian intellectual property practice one that sits at the junction of trademark law, contract law and competition law, yet is addressed by no single statute with dedicated clarity. In a trademark register that now carries over two and a half million active marks, with
Trademark Coexistence Agreements – strategy and drafting Read More »
Trademark infringement in India is conventionally understood through the lens of civil litigation injunctions, damages, accounts of profits and delivery up of infringing goods. These civil remedies are well-developed, extensively litigated and occupy the centre of trademark enforcement practice. However, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 contains a parallel and considerably less-discussed enforcement architecture that is
Criminal Remedies for Trademark Infringement in India Read More »
Trademark issues in franchise agreements occupy a peculiar and underappreciated intersection of commercial law and intellectual property law in India. A franchise relationship is, at its core, a contractual licence of intellectual property – most prominently, the franchisor’s trademark – in exchange for royalties, adherence to brand standards, and territorial exclusivity. Yet Indian practitioners and
The right of publicity is the legal right of an individual to control the commercial use of their identity their name, image, likeness, voice, signature and other recognizable attributes of their persona. It is a right that sits at the intersection of intellectual property law, personality rights and the law of torts and its significance
When a court of competent jurisdiction grants an injunction restraining a defendant from using a particular trademark, the natural expectation is that compliance is straightforward the defendant ceases the infringing use and the dispute, at least at the interlocutory stage, is resolved. In practice, however, defendants frequently do not simply stop. They modify the mark,
The Safe Distance Rule in Indian Trademark Law – Infringement After an Injunction Read More »
Every time a consumer types a brand name into a search engine, they are doing something instinctive and commercially significant: they are expressing brand preference. The search query “Hindware sanitaryware” or “MakeMyTrip flights” or “Agarwal Packers and Movers” is not a neutral information request it is a declaration of where the consumer intends to spend
Trademark law, in its conventional form, operates on a straightforward premise: a single proprietor owns a mark and uses it to distinguish their goods or services from those of others. The legal rights that follow from registration are personal, exclusive and commercially exploitable by that proprietor alone. Yet commerce is not always organised on this
Collective Marks and Certification Marks under Indian Trademark Law Read More »