Burberry Ltd. filed a suit under Sections 134 and 135 of The Trade Marks Act, 1999 and Section 55 of The Copyright Act, 1957 for a permanent injunction restraining Aditya Verma from violating proprietary rights. Learned ADJ, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi dismissed Burberry’s suit. Trial Court has completely misdirected itself in placing undue emphasis […]
Read more "Burberry"Though both parties have addressed this Court at length on merits and have also taken us through voluminous documents, we do not find it necessary to go into those issues. Justice S. Murtaza Fazal Ali as well as Justice A.N. Sen in Shah Babulal Khimji v. Jayaben D. Kania, (1981) 4 SCC 8 have a […]
Read more "5 Lakhs for Supreme Court I"Plaintiff’s two products – BLENDERS PRIDE, IMPERIAL BLUE – and Defendant’s CASINOS PRIDE belong to same segment i.e., Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and, therefore, cater to same customer base. They are also available from same outlets. But, “one does not blend in a casino, and blenders don‘t play dice.” Arrangement of letters and overall […]
Read more "Imperial Blender’s Casino"The Trade Marks Act, 1999 came into force on 15th September, 2003. When a trade mark is identical with a registered trade mark and goods or services are identical too, Court shall presume it is likely to cause confusion on public. Court has pointed out, essentials of a passing off action cannot be equated […]
Read more "An Identical Trademark"The question had been floating for a while. It was January 1, 2019 when I wondered who amongst then Chief Justices of HCs, if elevated, could be our 51st CJI. January 18, 2019 – we finally received an answer. CJI No. 51 would be Hon’ble Justice Sanjiv Khanna who wasn’t ever a Chief Justice of […]
Read more "The Nature of Judicial Power: Article No. 1101"Recently, Hon’ble Justice Prathiba M. Singh of Delhi High Court in Sulphur Mills Limited v. Dharmaj Crop Guard Limited, [CS(COMM) 1225/2018 & CC(COMM) 9/2019] said, to argue on basis of submissions made before Commissioner of Customs, there is no novelty or inventive step in Indian Patent Number 282429, would lead to an anomalous situation and […]
Read more "Red Herrings"It was claimed in Hamdard National Foundation v. Hussain Dalal, 202 (2013) DLT 291 Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013, Dir. Ayan Mukherjee) contains some dialogues which injures goodwill and reputation of ‘Rooh Afza’, a popular concentrated squash. It was admitted, ‘Rooh Afza’ is a well-known trademark. Attention was drawn to Section 29(9) of The Trade […]
Read more "Rooh Afza Returns"The expression ‘copyright’ has to be understood only as is stated in Section 14 and not otherwise. It is an exclusive right, which is negative in nature, being a right to restrict others from doing certain acts. The ownership of copyright in a work is different from the ownership of the physical material in which […]
Read more "The Copyright Act, 1957"If you have incomplete information on how a particular law has progressed, it is very likely your skill before Court would produce, every now and then, a significant margin of error. Eashan Ghosh’s efforts with ‘Imperfect Recollections: The Indian Supreme Court on Trade Mark Law’, (Thomson Reuters, 2020) is highly commendable. It is not for […]
Read more "Article No. 840: An Honest Concurrent Use"‘Rexona’ or ‘Reebok’ prima facie appear to be invented or coined words. They may command a higher degree of protection if there is a contest. As regards ‘Magic’/’Magical’ and ‘Masala’, the words are commonly used in the food and cosmetic industry. Therefore, neither ITC nor Nestlé can claim any monopoly. No person can appropriate common […]
Read more "The Magic in Masala"“The expression ‘as far as possible’ was relied upon by this Court in Paragraph 34 of its decision in High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan v. Veena Verma, (2009) 14 SCC 734. It would also be instructive to refer to a decision of this Court in State of M.P. v. Narmada Bachao Andolan, (2011) 7 […]
Read more "As Far As Possible"Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaf was founded in Munich, Germany in 1916. The commercial ties of BMW AG, in India, began in 1987 when the automobiles bearing the BMW marks were first sold. Om Balajee Automobile (India) Private Limited is manufacturing, marketing and selling e-rickshaws, e-cart rickshaws etc. under the trademark DMW. BMW AG got knowledge […]
Read more "BMW v. DMW : Luxury Car v. E-Rickshaw"My Lord, Nuziveedu infringed Monsanto’s Patent ? “Technically complex suit. We leave open all questions of fact and law to be urged for consideration in appropriate proceedings. The suit involved complicated mixed questions of law and facts with regard to patentability and exclusion of patent which could be examined in the suit on basis of evidence. There is no […]
Read more "Monsanto v. Nuziveedu: Patent Battle"Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd., ‘first past the post’, has a trade mark called ‘CHYMORAL’ and ‘CHYMORAL FORTE’, which is a drug administered post-surgically for swelling and/or wounds that may arise. They filed a suit against Wockhardt Ltd. for use of the mark ‘CHYMTRAL FORTE’. Fraud is not a necessary element of ‘passing off’ actions [Laxmikant, (2002) […]
Read more "Chymoral Forte v. Chymtral Forte : Acquiescing Passing Off"RNR, May 13, 2017 : “I intuitively conclude, mobile phones inside Courtrooms undermine the judicial process. One should be not be allowed to record, broadcast or communicate with outsiders while inside Courtrooms, without specific permission from Court itself.” RNR, November 13, 2017: “Even if Live Tweeting is to be permitted one day, it should be […]
Read more "An Alive Stream I"Diyora and Bhanderi Corporation v. Sarine Technologies Ltd. [Civil Appeal Nos. 7304-7305 of 2018] A copyright infringement action over proprietary software under the Respondent’s ‘ADVISOR’ trade mark triggered the dispute. The Respondent wished to direct Mr. Robert “Bob” Zeidman to compare the softwares and to report Court as to whether the source code and object […]
Read more "Mr. Robert “Bob” Zeidman"The Respondent, a Cooperative Federation of Milk Producers of Karnataka, adopted the mark ‘NANDINI’ in the year 1985 and under that brand name produced and sold milk. The Appellant adopted the mark ‘NANDHINI’, for its restaurants in the year 1989, and applied for registration of the said mark in respect of various food items sold. The Respondent […]
Read more "Nandini v. Nandhini : No Deceptive Similarity"Some men try hard for reasons best known to them. Team 2, even before it had shot and finalized the final print of its movie, filed a case before Bom HC. Dr. Abhinav Chandrachud fought for Team 1. He won. Hon’ble Justice G.S. Patel wrote: “In the present case there is no evidence of the […]
Read more "Veere Disarray"TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA launched the world’s first hybrid car, ‘Prius’, in Japan in 1997. In India, the car was released in 2009 and until that point of time Toyota had not obtained registration of the mark ‘Prius’ in the Indian jurisdiction. M/S PRIUS AUTO INDUSTRIES LIMITED had got the mark ‘Prius’ registered way back […]
Read more "The Goodwill in Passing Off Actions: The Toyota Prius Story"In 2007, Bharat Matrimony [www.bharatmatrimony.com] shared the following on its website: Limca Book of Records has conferred an honor on Bharat Matrimony for the maximum number of online marriages. In fact, we have 8 times more success stories than the nearest marriage portal [Bharat Matrimony, [Civil Appeal No. 2142 of 2007], decided on 07.01.2016]. People […]
Read more "Matrimony in Bharat / The Importance of Limca Records"
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