June 2017

Matal v Tam and the Question of Free Speech and Trademarks – Part I

/ By / Trademark

The Supreme Court of the United States, in a unanimous (8-0) decision in Matal v. Tam (582 US ___ (2017)) delivered on June 19, affirmed a federal court’s decision holding that US Trademark law’s restriction on registration of disparaging marks violates the First Amendment to the Constitution of the US, which provides protection against laws abridging the freedom of speech. In this post, I discuss the findings in Matal, and analyse the possible implications which the judgement may have for […]

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Taj Mahal Palace Hotel First Building to Receive Trademark in India

/ By / Copyright, Overlaps in IP, Trademark

On 19th June, Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) obtained a trademark for the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, giving it the unique advantage of being the first building to receive a trademark in India.  While news reports refer to this as an “image mark”, it is the first time (please correct me if I’m wrong) that this term has been used in India. Rajendra Misra, Senior Vice President-General Counsel of IHCL explained the rationale behind this move – “One look at

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SpicyIP Jobs: Lawyers Specializing in IP Litigation at S. Majumdar & Co., New Delhi

/ By / Others

We are happy to inform you that the New Delhi office of S. Majumdar & Co. is immediately looking for lawyers specialising in IP litigation. For further details, please see the job description below: Responsibilities The candidate must be competent to draft all kinds of pleadings and appear in Courts, brief Senior Counsels and assist them during the hearings. Desired Joining Date Immediate, by 1st of July, 2017. Desired Qualification & Experience LL.B. degree and/or LL.M. Minimum 5 years of experience

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SpicyIP Events: 6th Annual IP Teaching/Research Workshop, 2017; Registration Closes Tomorrow

/ By / Event

We are pleased to remind our readers that the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC), National Law University, Delhi and Centre for Intellectual Property Rights & Advocacy (CIPRA), National Law School of India University, Bangalore are organising the 6th Annual IP Teaching/Research Workshop, 2017 on July 2-3, 2017 in Bangalore.  Interested law students, practitioners or faculty members must send in their request to attend the workshop by June 29, 2017 (tomorrow) to [email protected]. Late entries will not be accepted. For further details, please

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Breaking News: Madras High Court Cautions Government Against Tribunal Appointments!

/ By / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

In a major development today, the Madras High Court firmly ruled that all appointments to the 19 odd tribunals (under the purview of the impugned Finance Act and Rules) would be subject to the final order in the writ petition filed by the Madras Bar Association (MBA). The bench comprised Justice Indira Banerjee (Chief Justice of the Madras High Court) and Justice Bhavani Subbarayan (for whom incidentally, this was the very first day in court: what an auspicious start!). While

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SpicyIP Events: CIIPC’s Second Annual Roundtable on Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition

/ By / Event

  We are pleased to announce that the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC), National Law University, Delhi is organising the 2nd Annual Roundtable on Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition on July 1-2, 2017 at Taj Westend in Bangalore. For further details, please read their post below:   Second Annual Roundtable on Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (1st– 2nd July, 2017) Taj Westend, Bangalore About the Roundtable: The CIIPC conducts the Annual Roundtable on Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition to offer

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Open/Secret – Assessing India’s Commitment to Open Data

/ By / Copyright, Innovation, Overlaps in IP

Image from here   The ‘Digital India’ slogan has not been enough to pull the government out of its digital data doldrums. India’s rank in the Global Open Data Index, which ranks countries on openness across various sets of government data, dropped 15 places to No. 32 between 2015 and 2016. While some gains have been made in the implementation of the data.gov.in portal under the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (“NDSAP”), these are fledgling in relation to the

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In a Sign of Things to Come, Delhi High Court Passes Summary Judgment in Trademark Infringement Suit

/ By / Trademark

As we’ve noted on this blog before, one concrete manifestation of the Indian Government’s desire to promote the adjudication of commercial disputes by specialized tribunals was the enactment of the Commercial Courts Act (“the Act”) in 2015. Broadly speaking, the Act envisages the resolution of all commercial disputes – a term which includes within its ambit IP disputes – whose commercial value exceeds 1 crore rupees by separately constituted commercial courts or commercial divisions in high courts having original jurisdiction.

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Manupatra to Launch E-Learning Platform ‘LawSkills’

/ By / Others

We are pleased to inform our readers that Manupatra is launching an e-learning platform, ‘www.lawskills.in‘, aimed at bridging the gap between legal education and profession. The launch is to take place on June 28, 2017 at Silver Oak, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. As per Manupatra, “LawSkills is an e-learning platform that aims to revolutionize professional online education in the field of law. LawSkills will attempt to leverage technology and build an ecosystem of industry practitioners and learners to make learning easy,

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (June 18 – June 24)

/ By / Others

The week’s thematic highlight has to be the guest post on the ‘physical copy’ doctrine in Indian Copyright Law, contributed by MV Swaroop and Shrey Patnaik. In the aftermath of the Raabta-Magadheera copyright row, Swaroop analyses copyright in cinematographic films and the apparent divergence of the Calcutta High Court from the text of Section 14 of the Copyright Act in allowing the producer of a film to sue for infringement of a ‘copycat’ or substantially similar film. The topical highlight

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