Every copyright must, at the moment it comes into existence, vest in someone. The question of who that person is who holds the copyright from the instant the work is created, before any assignment, any licensing arrangement or any commercial transaction has taken place is the question of first ownership. It is a question of
First Ownership of Copyright in India – Section 17 and Its Exceptions Read More »
High Court of Judicature at Madras, Single Judge | Date of Decision: 16.10.2026 (Reserved on: 14.07.2026) Case Number: CMA(PT) No. 22 of 2025 Bench: Hon’ble Mr. Justice K. Kumaresh Babu BACKGROUND The Appellant, The North Face Apparel Corp, filed the present Civil Miscellaneous Appeal under Section 117A of the Patents Act, 1970, challenging an order
The North Face Apparel Corp v. Controller of Patents and Designs Read More »
High Court of Judicature at Madras, Single Judge | Date of Decision: 28.09.2026 (Reserved on: 02.06.2026) Case Number: (T)OP(TM) No. 482 of 2023 Bench: Hon’ble Mr. Justice K. Kumaresh Babu BACKGROUND The Petitioner, RPG Enterprises Limited, filed the present petition under Section 57 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 seeking rectification of Trade Mark Registration
RPG Enterprises Limited v. The Registrar of Trademarks and Ors. Read More »
High Court at Calcutta, Intellectual Property Rights Division, Original Side (Single Judge) | Date of Decision: 7 October, 2026 Case Number: IA No. GA-COM/1/2024 in IP-COM/25/2024 Bench: Hon’ble Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur BACKGROUND The petitioner, Nocil Ltd., one of the largest manufacturers of rubber chemicals in India, filed the underlying suit for patent infringement and
Court: High Court of Delhi at New Delhi (Division Bench) Date of Decision: 1 July 2026 Case Number: FAO(OS)(COMM) 207/2025 & CM APPL. 79554/2025 Bench: Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla BACKGROUND The appellant, ITC Limited, is a company engaged in the hospitality business and is the owner of a chain of
Copyright is infringed by copying, and copying is rarely admitted. A plaintiff who finds that a film, a serial, a song or a book resembles his own work must prove, without the benefit of a confession, that the resemblance is the product of borrowing and that what was borrowed is something the law protects. The
Substantial Similarity in Indian Copyright Law: The Test for Determining Infringement Read More »
Every copyright dispute in India eventually returns to a single question: what exactly did the plaintiff own, and what did the defendant take? The answer almost never lies in the whole work. It lies in the line the law draws between an idea, which anyone may use, and the particular way an author has expressed
Idea-Expression Dichotomy in Indian Copyright Law: What Is Protected and What Is Not? Read More »
Publication is the moment at which an Indian patent application stops being a private communication between an applicant and the Patent Office and becomes a public document. From that date the invention is part of the prior art against the world, the applicant acquires statutory privileges that stop short of a right to sue and
High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad, Division Bench | Date of Decision: 30/09/2026 Case Number: R/Letters Patent Appeal No. 54 of 2015, in R/Special Civil Application No. 649/2001 Bench: Hon’ble the Chief Justice Mrs. Justice Sunita Agarwal (author) and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Divyesh A. Joshi BACKGROUND This intra-court Letters Patent Appeal was filed by the
Collector and Additional Superintendent of Stamps v. Arvind Brands Ltd. Read More »
The publication of the Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Patent Examination Procedures by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks on 7 August 2026 marks the first occasion on which the Indian Patent Office has formally acknowledged and attempted to govern, a practice that had already been