Author name: Aparajita Lath

Aparajita is an Assistant Professor at the National Law School of India, Bangalore. She graduated from the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata and Harvard Law School (LL.M). She has worked at AZB & Partners and Trilegal. She was also a Student Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Centre at Harvard Law School.

Resurrecting the 6 year Rule in Indian Patent Law?

/ By / Patent

The Delhi High Court recently passed an ex parte injunction order in 3M Innovative Properties Company v Venus Safety and Health Pvt Ltd (December 2013).  This post looks into three aspects of the order: the court’s reliance on the outdated ‘six year rule’, the infringement analysis adopted by the court and the ‘ex parte’ nature of the order. The ‘6 year’ rule in Indian patent  jurisprudence refers to a rule created in 1965 by the Madras High Court which laid […]

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Interpreting S. 28 of the Trademark Act: Delhi High Court

/ By / Trademark

The normal rule in trademark law is that once a person registers a trademark for particular goods, he has the exclusive right to use that trademark in relation to those goods. As with most rules there are exceptions: one exception provided to this general rule under the Trademark Act, is when there are two or more registered proprietors of the same mark. In such a situation, neither proprietor can claim exclusivity against the other. However, what the exception does not

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Sing along with the Samajwadi Party! “We Didn’t Start the Fire”

/ By / Uncategorized

“Man se hai Mulayam, Aur Irade Loha hai, Irade Loha hai, Man se hai Mulayam” [Sing it to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”!] After a series of long and interesting posts, we have for our readers an entertaining tidbit. As reported, the Samajwadi Party has bought rights to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. SP’s campaign song uses the catchy tune of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and is repurposed to promote Mulayam Singh

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Book Publisher, IRRO challenge Constitutionality of Copyright Amendments and Rules

/ By / Copyright

The Petitioners: Anand Bhushan is the Joint MD of the second petitioner who is a book publisher (Pitambar Publishing. Mainly publishes educational books). The second petitioner is a member of the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (a copyright society). The IRRO enables users of copyrighted works to obtain a license for photocopying works held by IRRO. The Indian Federation of Publishers, the apex body representing the Indian publishing industry, is the fourth petitioner. The IRRO is currently involved in the Delhi

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Delhi HC and Madras HC Decisions on Quia Timet Actions

/ By / Patent

In a recent case before the Delhi High Court (Bristol Myers Squibb Company v. Bhutada and Ors), the defendants made an application seeking return of plaint for presentation in the appropriate court. The plaint related to a pray for a quia timet injunction ( ‘quia timet’ means: ‘because he fears’ and is an injunction to prevent a possible future injury). The Delhi High Court dismissed the defendant’s application but did not decide on the grant of injunction. A similar case

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Guest Post: The Delicate Balance (a poem on IP)

/ By / Others

SpicyIP, Has for its readers, A post so unique, Don’t miss it, we plead! A poem on property and on greed, A poem on existential realities!  We are pleased to bring to our readers a lovely poem written by Dr. Raman Mittal. Dr. Mittal teaches at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. The Delicate Balance Man was a hunter and when he started to gather Law and property were then born together When was it? It’s not in my

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Dr. Reddy: Honest and Concurrent Use?

/ By / Trademark

The IPAB recently ordered for the removal of the trademark ‘Reddy’ registered in favour of Reddy Pharmaceuticals Limited (respondent) pursuant to an application filed by Dr. Reddy Laboratories (applicant). Background: Dr. Reddy Laboratories was established by Dr. K. Anji Reddy to create and deliver innovative pharmaceutical health solutions and is the second largest pharmaceutical company in India. As claimed, ‘Dr. Reddy’ was a mark adopted and used by Dr. Reddy Laboratories since 1984 and has acquired reputation and goodwill. However,

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Tamil Nadu Police undertake to remove Jägermeister trademark from ‘don’t drink and drive’ sign

/ By / Trademark

 Recently, Mast-Jägermeister SE, manufacturers of alcohol, filed a Writ Petition before the High Court of Madras against the Tamil Nadu Police. The matter relates to the usage of the company’s registered trademark- Jägermeister in a ‘don’t drink and drive’ campaign poster by the Tamil Nadu Police (see images). As shown, the bottles of Jägermeister (with their labels) are placed next to a picture depicting a fatal accident. Jägermeister requested the TN Police to remove the signage, however, no action was taken. Hence

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IKEA fights Copy Cats, Swat Kats Style

/ By / Trademark

As Economic Times reports, Swedish retail giant IKEA has sent a legal team to initiate trademark infringement cases against over two dozen businesses in India. As previously blogged about, Inter IKEA Systems B.V. is the owner and franchisor of the IKEA Concept and reportedly has 45 trademark registrations in India (for eg. – Application Nos. – 1523574, 1523584, 343317 etc.) IKEA, a global furniture and home products store, recently received regulatory clearance for entry into India. In order to protect

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SpicyIP Tidbit: J. A. Production permanently restrained from using ‘Hamara Bajaj’ by a consent order

/ By / Trademark

As blogged about earlier, John Abraham’s film production house J.A. Entertainment Pvt Ltd. is embroiled in a copyright and trademark infringement case for its upcoming movie titled ‘Hamara Bajaj’. Ostensibly, the movie derives its title from the story of the film which is centered around the life of one ‘Sanjay Bajaj’. But the same two words have been used consistently by Bajaj Auto Ltd. as a tag line for advertising ‘Bajaj Chetak’, one of the most popular Bajaj scooters (which is

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