Intellectual Property Law

ITC Limited v. Philip Morris Products SA and Others

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, […]

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Hindusthan Lever Limited v. Godrej Soaps Limited and Others

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

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The PCT System and India: International Filing, National Phase Entry and Prosecution Practice

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

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Performer’s right and Broadcast reproduction right under The Copyright Act, 1957

Chapter VIII of The Copyright Act, 1957 i.e. rights of broadcasting organisation and of performers in section 37 deals with Broadcast reproduction right and in section 38 with Performer’s right. The Copyright Act, 1957 is principally understood as a statute that protects authors, composers, writers, painters and filmmakers who create original works Yet creative industries

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Copyright Societies in India : Statutory Architecture of Sections 33 to 36A

The administration of copyright in creative industries has never been a matter that individual rights holders can manage alone. A composer whose work is performed across thousands of radio stations, hotel lobbies, restaurants and streaming platforms simultaneously cannot possibly negotiate individual licences with each user, monitor unauthorised performances or collect royalties from each source. It

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The Concept of Distinctiveness in Indian Trademark Law

Distinctiveness is the soul of a trademark. It is the quality that separates a protectable brand identifier from an ordinary word, symbol or device that belongs to the common stock of language and commerce. Without distinctiveness, a mark cannot perform the essential trademark function the identification of the commercial origin of goods or services and

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Trademark Assignment – Requirements and Procedure under the Trade Marks Act, 1999

A trademark, once registered, is a species of personal property. Like other forms of intellectual property, it is capable of being owned, transferred, mortgaged, licensed and dealt with in all the ways that the law permits in respect of movable property. The transfer of ownership of a trademark wholly or partially, with or without the

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Claim Drafting for Indian Patents – Types, Scope and Strategy

If the specification is the heart of a patent application, the claims are its spine. Every structural decision in the specification how the invention is described, what embodiments are disclosed, which prior art is distinguished ultimately serves the claims, because it is the claims alone that define the legal boundary of the monopoly that the

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