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 »
The relationship between sovereign power and private intellectual property rights has been one of the most contested and consequential questions in the design of patent systems since the earliest days of modern patent law. A patent grants its holder a monopoly a right to exclude all others, including the state, from using the patented invention
Government Use of Patents – Section 99 to 103 of the Patents Act, 1970 Read More »
The commercial value of a patent lies not only in the right to exclude others from using the patented invention but in the capacity to transfer, assign and transmit that right to move it through the marketplace as a fungible asset that can be bought, sold, mortgaged, inherited and incorporated into the complex webs of
Patent Assignment and Transmission in India – Section 68 and 69 Read More »
Among the most practically significant yet doctrinally complex provisions of the Patents Act, 1970 is Section 107A, inserted into the Act by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002. In the two decades since its insertion, Section 107A has become one of the most contested and commercially consequential provisions in Indian pharmaceutical patent law, engaging questions that
Few obligations in Indian patent law are as frequently misunderstood, as consistently neglected and as consequential in their implications as the requirement to work a patent in India. The Patents Act, 1970 does not treat the grant of a patent as the end of the patentee’s obligations to the public it treats it as the
Working of Patents in India – Section 83, Form 27 and Consequences Read More »
High Court of Delhi | Justice S. Ravindra Bhat | Date of Decision: 17.09.2008 Case Number: IA No. 2352/2008 in CS (OS) 344/2008 BACKGROUND The plaintiffs comprise a Delaware-incorporated company and its subsidiaries incorporated in the United Kingdom and India, engaged in the manufacture and marketing of toys, games and consumer products. Among their well-known
Mattel Inc. & Ors. v. Mr. Jayant Agarwalla & Ors. Read More »
High Court of Delhi | Justice S. Ravindra Bhat | 7 January 2010 I.A. Nos. 12940/2009, 12941/2009 & 12942/2009 in CS(OS) 1894/2009 BACKGROUND The plaintiff, ITC Limited, is described in the pleadings as one of India’s largest private sector companies with an annual turnover of Rs. 23,144 crores, engaged in diverse businesses including hotels,
ITC Limited v. Philip Morris Products SA and Others Read More »
Court: High Court of Calcutta | Date of Decision: 11 April 1996 Citation: AIR 1996 CAL 367; (1997) 1 CALLT 123 (HC); 100 CWN 562; (1996) 100 Cal WN 562; (1997) 2 CivLJ 302 BACKGROUND The plaintiff, Hindusthan Lever Limited, is a leading Indian manufacturer of soaps, detergents, cleaning preparations, chemicals and fertilisers, holding over
Hindusthan Lever Limited v. Godrej Soaps Limited and Others Read More »
India’s accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty on December 7, 1998, fundamentally transformed the landscape for both inbound and outbound patent filings. For Indian applicants seeking protection across multiple jurisdictions, the PCT provides a single-window mechanism of unmatched procedural efficiency. For foreign applicants targeting the Indian marketone of the world’s most consequential pharmaceutical, technology and