August 2017

The Supreme Court’s Privacy Judgment Elevates Personality Rights to the Constitutional Plane

/ By / Privacy

In a landmark judgment delivered on August 24, 2017 a bench of 9 judges of the Supreme Court in the case of Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India has clarified that all Indians have a fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. I use the word ‘clarify’ because smaller benches of the Supreme Court have previously proceeded on the assumption that privacy has always been a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. These judgments […]

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The ‘Kwik’ Fix – Part II

/ By / Trademark

Previously, in Part I, I had introduced the facts of the case and had dealt with some of the key issues thrown up by this order, including: infringement of the word-mark “Fevikwik”, disclaimers on the registrations, and validity of registration of “Kwikheal”. Here, I deal with the remaining issues and attempt an analysis of the order. Distinctive Packaging Pidilite claimed that even if Poma-Ex’s registration was valid, it wouldn’t allow for a defence u/s 28, 29 or 30 of the

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The ‘Kwik’ Fix – Part I

/ By / Trademark

Earlier this month, through an interim order, the Bombay HC held that the mark “Kwikheal” is deceptively similar to “Fevikwik”. The court through J. Dhanuka undertook an elaborate analysis of the issues at hand and went on to grant an injunction against the proprietors of “Kwikheal.” As simple as the above seems to be, the order is equally layered. It records an exhaustive back-and-forth between the two parties and well-reasoned findings by the Judge. Before we launch into an analysis

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Is Justice Manmohan Singh’s Appointment as Chairperson to IPAB in Line with Law Laid Down in Shamnad Basheer v. Union of India?

/ By / Others

As Pankhuri informed us yesterday, it is virtually certain that Justice Manmohan Singh who retired from the Delhi High Court, will be the next chairperson of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). His appointment has been made under the Tribunal, Appellate and other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other conditions of Service of Members) Rules, 2017 which derives its authority from the Finance Act, 2017. As reported earlier, the constitutionality of these rules and the relevant provisions of the Finance Act, 2017

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SpicyIP Jobs: Associate/Senior Associate – Patents at Remfry & Sagar, Gurgaon & Chennai

/ By / Others

We are pleased to inform our readers that Remfry & Sagar, one of India’s leading IP law firms, is looking to recruit 10 candidates for the Associate/Senior Associate – Patents position for its Gurgaon and Chennai offices. For further details, please read the job description below: About the Firm Remfry & Sagar, India’s premier Intellectual Property law firm, with over 225 personnel, is expanding its operations and looking to recruit qualified patent attorneys, science/engineering graduates and lawyers (with technical/science backgrounds) for

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Delhi HC Issues Directions for Time Bound Issuance of Certified Copies of TM Records

/ By / Trademark

Last month, the Delhi High Court through Justice Endlaw issued directions to the Registrar of trademarks, facilitating time bound issuance of certified copies of trademark office records. These directions were issued via an order passed in pursuance of a revision petition filed by the Registrar of trademarks (C.R.P. No. 146/2015). The revision petition was filed against an order of the Additional District Judge, issuing proclamation against the Registrar, under Order XVI Rule 10 of the CPC for non-production of records

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Singh Is King! : IPAB Ceases to be Headless with Justice (Retd.) Manmohan Singh’s Appointment as Its Chairman

/ By / Others

In a post last year, Prof. Basheer had informed us of a speculative piece of news that Justice Manmohan Singh, former judge of the Delhi High Court, would soon succeed Justice (Retd.) K.N. Basha as the Chairman of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) after his retirement. If certain recent web reports (see here, here, here and here) and an information note (which seems to be one issued by the government) are to be believed, this could well have come

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Not in God’s Name: Bombay HC Refuses Monopoly Over Names of Hindu Gods

/ By / Trademark

I have often worried about the tendency of our Gods these days, to slip out of our churches, mosques and temples and dance (the proverbial tandav?) about our secular spaces. It could be that my thinking is influenced by the ‘sickular’, ‘libtard’ narrative. But, no Indian will deny that the usurpation of the secular space by our Gods, influences reactions of a very limited range – anger, fear, sadness, and sometimes just a massive facepalm. Perhaps the only upside is

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Nobody Puts Beautiful (IP) Babies in a Corner!

/ By / Patent

  Babies are a boon for some. And a bane for others! Particularly brand name owners who find their names being appropriated by pirate parents who think nothing of marring their young ones with “marks”. Think Sony Singh, Google Ganguly or even Nokia Nair (a fine one for those South of the Vindhyas). For those interested, I did a post on branded babies some years ago. More recently (last year in fact), babies featured in a heated IP battle involving

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (August 13-19)

/ By / Others

This week started with Prashant’s post about the numerous judgements of the Delhi High Court which have continued to apply the overruled judgement in Time Incorporated v. Lokesh Srivastava, relating to the grant of punitive damages in IPR cases. The cases show a disturbing misstep in the court’s refusing to follow the rule of stare decisis on the binding nature of the judgements of larger benches of the court. The next post was Harshvardhan’s exposition on trademark bullying, in the context of the dispute between eBay

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