Author name: Devika Agarwal

Devika is a Policy Analyst at Nasscom. She first started writing on Spicy IP in 2013 when she was awarded the Spicy IP Fellowship, which sparked her passion for writing on IP. Devika is interested in copyright and technology law.

To Endorse or Not to Endorse

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

‘To endorse or not to endorse’- actors will now find themselves grappling with this question the next time they sign an endorsement contract. This is because the Central Consumer Protection Council (CCPC), the apex body for consumer protection in India, has now decided to hold actors accountable in cases of false claims made in advertisements for products which they endorse. This means that a consumer can now claim compensation for false claims, made in respect of a product, not only […]

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Screenager versus Kerala’s Bizarre Copyright Law

/ By / Copyright

[Edit: The original post had erroneously stated that the arrest of the teenager was carried out under The Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act 2007. The author regrets that the title may have been chosen hastily.] In a bid to prevent online piracy which is on the rise in Kerala’s film industry, Mollywood, Kerala police recently arrested a teenager for uploading a copy of the Malayalam film ‘Dhrishyam’ using Facebook (He had uploaded the film on Facebook in three sections/pages and

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A Matter of the Heart

/ By / Trademark

  In an interesting case, a “heart” is quite literally at the “heart” of a trademark dispute. Most recently, fashion house, Gap Inc. and fashion design company, Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) Studio, have approached a federal court in the Southern District of New York to decide whether the “heart emoticon” (<3) can be protected as a trademark [declaratory judgment complaint 13 civ 8943 (December 17, 2013)]. In the light of this development, it is worth exploring the trademark worthiness of emoticons and whether

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