International intellectual property law rests on a web of multilateral treaties and conventions that establish minimum standards of protection, define reciprocal obligations among member states and create the framework within which domestic copyright systems operate. At the centre of this web, for copyright, is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works […]
Trademark law, in its traditional formulation, is concerned primarily with consumer confusion the risk that the use of a similar mark will mislead consumers about the commercial origin of goods or services. The likelihood of confusion standard, which pervades the examination of relative grounds under Section 11, the infringement enquiry under Section 29 and the
Trademark Dilution in India – Blurring and Tarnishment Read More »
Patent infringement litigation in India, as in every major patent jurisdiction, is rarely a simple contest between an unimpeachable patent and an undeniable act of infringement. The defendant in a patent infringement suit has available to it a range of defences statutory, equitable and procedural that can defeat or substantially limit the plaintiff’s claim even
Defences to Patent Infringement – Section 107 and Beyond Read More »
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
High Court of Delhi at New Delhi (Division Bench) | Decided: 9 November 2012 | RFA (OS) No. 90 of 2010 Bench: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pradeep Nandrajog & Hon’ble Mr. Justice Manmohan Singh Background The Himalaya Drug Company, the appellant, is the owner of the trade mark Liv.52, registered under registration number 180564 in Class
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 »
Delhi High Court | Manmohan J. | 1 July 2019 AIRONLINE 2019 DEL 972 | (2019) 262 DLT 734 | CS(COMM) 753/2017 Background MRF Limited (plaintiff), a leading tyre manufacturer operating in approximately sixty-five countries, launched a tyre series called MRF NV Series “REVZ” in June 2015. To promote this product, the plaintiff produced an
High Court of Delhi | 28 February 2014 CS (OS) 3193 of 2012 & CC No. 49 of 2013, IA Nos. 10389-90 of 2013, 10638 of 2013, 20025 of 2013, 18788 of 2013 Hon’ble Mr. Justice S. Muralidhar BACKGROUND The plaintiffs in the present matter are Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (“Teva”), Yeda Research and Development
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. & Ors. v. Natcopharma Limited 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 »