Author name: L. Gopika Murthy

Gopika is a fourth year student at National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She was formerly the Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Law and Technology. Her first exposure to Intellectual property law and SpicyIP was through the University Moot Rounds at NLSIU, Bangalore in her first year. She has been regularly following the developments in the field of IPR since then and she hopes to contribute to the reporting of such developments. Her areas of interest in IP include copyrights, open access, fair dealing and trademarks.

‘Hamara Bajaj’- infringement of trademark of Bajaj Auto Ltd.?

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

Trouble seems to be brewing for upcoming movie ‘Hamara Bajaj’ produced by actor John Abraham’s film production company, J.A. Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bajaj Auto Ltd., India’s second largest two wheeler production company has filed a case of copyright and trademark infringement against J.A. Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. This is with reference to the title of the film, namely, ‘Hamara Bajaj’ which is the same as the tag line of the advertisement for the Bajaj Chetak, one of the most popular products […]

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India Joins the International Trademark System

/ By / Trademark

Yesterday, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Anand Sharma submitted India’s instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Marks at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). MR. Sharma is attending a High Level Policy Dialogue on “Innovation and Development: The Indian Experience” at the WIPO. The treaty will come into force with respect to India from July 8, 2013. Mr. Sharma and Mr. Gurry at the WIPO yesterday(Photo: WIPO/Berrod) The main attraction of the Madrid System

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US Department of Justice conducts review of IPXI

/ By / Competition Law

A press release issued by IPXI, Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., the world’s first financial exchange for licensing and trading intellectual property rights, brought to our attention, the eight month long review of IPXI conducted by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice.  After the completion of the review, the DoJ has, according to the press release, issued its BRL (Business Review Letter) which apparently is in favour of the IPXI Licensing Model.   IPXI, is an exchange that

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Joint Committees related to Trademark Matters

/ By / Trademark

A public notice issued 5 days ago by the Office of The Controller General Patents, Designs& Trade Marks has brought forth quite a wonderful initiative. It provides for the establishment of joint committees consisting of members from Trademark stakeholders and some officers of the Trademark Registry. (henceforth TMR) This initiative has been suggested as a mechanism to find constructive solutions for the various problems that arise with respect to trademark matters as well as to ensure better coordination between the TMR

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Statistics of patent grants in India

/ By / Patent

Recently, Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry filed a written reply which contained statistics of applicants filed for patents and the patents that were actually granted in India. This was released by the Press Information Bureau and was brought to our knowledge by a friend and well wisher of SpicyIP , Mr. Shiwprasad Wanve. The PIB release tabulates the patent applications filed in medicines by Indian legal entities including companies, Research and Development Institutions & Academic Institutions from 2009 to

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‘Mad Men’ controversy

/ By / Privacy

The hugely popular and critically acclaimed TV series ‘Mad Men‘ has faced a setback after its production company Lionsgate has been sued by Gita Hall May, a top 1950’s model. The lawsuit has been filed by Ms. May in the Superior Court of the State of California for the county of Los Angeles. The main title sequence of the Mad Men series depicts the shadow of a businessman falling through Madison Avenue. The background uses advertisements, office buildings and other designs

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UOI v. Malhotra Book Depot- restoration of trademark.

/ By / Trademark

Union of India v. Malhotra Book Depot is a recent case (decided on the 27th of February, 2013) by the Delhi High Court. This case was regarding the restoration of the trademark of Malhotra Book Depot (henceforth Respondent). The Respondent had a registered trademark which had not been renewed post 1984. Twenty six years after the expiration of the trademark, Respondent filed an application for restoration and renewal of the trademark. This application was not accepted by the Registrar of

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Blocking order issued against six UK ISP’s by England and Wales High Court

/ By / Copyright

As reported by Managing Intellectual Property, on 28 February 2013, Justice Arnold of the Chancery Division of the England and Wales High Court decided a copyright case in favour of music companies against six UK internet service providers (ISP’s). The record companies claimed that their copyright was being infringed upon by certain websites and asked the Court to issue a blocking order against the ISP’s.  The applicable legal provision was Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Justice Arnold framed four questions which

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Accessibility of Public Libraries to Persons with Disabilities.

/ By / Copyright

The issue of accessibility of public libraries to people with disabilities (PWDs) is an issue that is considered worldwide. In India, it has received an impetus in 2012 after the Copyright Amendment Act was passed by the Parliament. Post the 2012 Amendment, Section 52 of the Copyright Act enables libraries to convert their collections into formats accessible to PWDs free of cost.  In this context, 20 disability rights groups wrote to the Ministers of Culture, HRD and Social Welfare requesting

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Dorling Kindersley v. Sanguine Technical Publishers

/ By / Copyright

A recent Delhi High Court order passed on 21 January, 2013  with respect to copyright licensing has come to our notice. An analysis of the judgement has been attempted in this blog post. Facts: In 2009, Pearson Education entered into an agreement with Sanguine Technical Publishers and its three partners, M.R.Kamalakar Pandit, Lal.M.Prasad and Dr.D.Ganesh Rao to co-brand engineering books. The agreement was for a period of 48 months and could be extended to 60 month.In 2012, Pearson was informed

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