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.

[SpicyIP Tidbit] Nagoya Protocol to enter into force in October

/ By / Biological Diversity

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing is all set to enter into force from October 12, 2014 pursuant to its ratification by 51 countries (ratification by 50 countries being the threshold requirement). The Nagoya Protocol, which aims to protect countries from biopiracy and misappropriation of biological resources, was agreed to in October 2010. India had signed the same in 2011 an the Union Cabinet had ratified it in 2012. (Swaraj’s post on the same is available here). The …

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Protection over common expressions

/ By / Trademark

Recently, the Bombay High Court came out with a brief and well-reasoned judgment on the issue of IPR protection for common expressions. The subject matter in dispute, in this case of Techlegal Solutions v. Genelia Ritesh Deshmukh & 7 Ors, is with respect to the Marathi phrase ‘Lai Bhaari’ which is not only the title of the new Ritesh Deshmukh starrer (which incidentally, appears to have  opened to more or less good reviews) but also a major part of the domain name of a …

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Law Commission’s Consultation Paper on Media Law-Responses

/ By / Privacy

The Law Commission of India floated a Consultation Paper on Media Law in May 2014 to elicit the views of all the stakeholders. The Law Commission is looking into the following questions: 1. Social Media and Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 2. Cross Media Ownership 3. Media and Individual Privacy 4. Regulation of the Media 5. Paid News 6. Opinion Polls 7. Trial by Media and Rights of the Accused 8. Defamation 9. Publications and Contempt of Court 10. Regulations surrounding Government owned media. These responses which …

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The Whirlpool-Videocon Designs Saga-Part II

/ By / Design

As promised in my previous post, today’s post looks at the three defenses of functionality, novelty and two design registrations by the Plaintiff with minor modifications on the same day, which were urged by the Defendant in the matter of Whirlpool of India Ltd. v. Videocon Industries Ltd. It will also look at whether the issue of passing off in this case was rightly decided by the Court. FUNCTIONALITY The first defense urged by the Defendant was that of functionality …

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The Whirlpool-Videocon Designs Saga- Part I

/ By / Design

(This is a two part post on the Bombay HC decision. This post looks at the issues of maintainability of a suit for infringement between two registered proprietors and whether there was an infringement in this case. The second post looks at the defenses of functionality, novelty and the fact that the plaintiff had obtained two registration with minor variations on the same day. It also considers the issue of passing off) At the end of May, the Bombay High …

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The dispute between Anchor Health & Beauty Care and Proctor & Gamble Manufacturing- Part II

/ By / Trademark

Yesterday, I had published a post about the Single Judge’s decision of 9 May, 2014 with respect to the trademark dispute between Anchor and Proctor & Gamble. One of the major issues involved therein was whether the plaintiff’s mark “ALLROUND PROTECTION” was descriptive or not. The Single Judge decided this issue and rightly so, using the principle of approbate and reprobate. However, he did not come to a finding on the descriptiveness of the plaintiff’s mark. I had discussed that …

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Anchor Health and Beauty Care Pvt Ltd. v. P&G Manufacturing Co Ltd- a trademark dispute over descriptiveness and more!

/ By / Trademark

Last month, the High Court of Delhi decided a trademark dispute between Anchor Health and Beauty Care Pvt Ltd and Proctor and Gamble Manufacturing Co Ltd. The plaintiff (Anchor Health) had a registered trademark ‘ALLROUND’ and they stated that the defendant’s use of the mark “ALL-AROUND PROTECTION’ vis-a-vis their toothpaste brand ORAL-B constituted an infringement of the plaintiff’s trademark.This case involved three major issues, first, whether the plaintiff’s mark was descriptive, secondly, whether it had fallen into disuse and thirdly, in any event, whether the defendant’s …

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Karim’s Mughlai Cuisine- A spicy trademark dispute

/ By / Trademark

The case of MD IFTEKHAR v. M/s KARIM HOTELS Pvt Ltd. was an appeal to the Delhi High Court decided early this month.This case essentially deals with the issue of the ownership of  trademarks The privileged position that the Court accords to registration of trademarks is made apparent in this case, even when there are suggestions that the registration is invalid. It is also a testament to the legal principle that a lower bench’s decision will not be interfered with …

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International Day Against Digital Rights Management

/ By / Others, Privacy

Today, the 6th of May is being celebrated as the International Day against DRM or Digital Rights Management. Digital Rights Management is understood as “the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media.”  These restrictions can be on hardware or software and it can restrict users from performing lawful activities such as being able to repair or modify the things that they own.  As Defective By Design puts it, “When a program is designed …

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2nd IJLT-SFLC Law & Technology Essay Competition 2014

/ By / Others

The Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT) and the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) are proud to announce the 2nd IJLT-SFLC Law & Technology Essay Competition 2014. Open to undergraduate law students across India, this essay competition seeks to encourage creative thinking and promote research and writing about crucial legal issues in the field of information technology and the internet. The IJLT The Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT), is a student-run law journal published by the National …

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