Mathews P. George

Mathews is a graduate of National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. His interest in intellectual property was kindled when he bagged the second position in his second year of Law School (in the prestigious Nani Palkhiwala Essay Competition on Intellectual Property). His stint as a student of Prof. Shamnad Basheer further accentuated his interest in intellectual property. Winner of almost a dozen essay competitions in his Law School days, he was involved in various research and policy initiatives relating to intellectual property. Mathews is, currently, based out of Munich, Germany. He had earlier done his LLM in 'IP and Competition Law' from Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (jointly run by Max Plank Institute for Innovation and Competition, University of Augsburg, Technical University of Munich and George Washington University, Washington).

Trademark

Bom HC judgment on ‘honest concurrent use’

by Mathews P. George October 11, 2014

1 Comment

Justice G.S. Patel of Bombay High Court, in his recent judgment in ITM Trust & Ors. V. Educate India Society, examined the ambit of ‘honest concurrent use’ in Trade Marks Act, 1999. Brief Facts The 1st Plaintiff, which is a public charitable and educational trust, controls and manages Institute of Technology & Management. It is the registered owner of word mark “ITM” which falls in various classes. The Plaintiffs claim to be rendering services since 1993. When the Plaintiffs came…

Geographical Indication Others

Some thoughts on ‘posturing’ in international policy discourses

by Mathews P. George September 24, 2014

Leave a Comment

[*Long post] IP-Watch recently carried a post titled ‘Is the Development Dimension of WIPO incompatible with its role of IP protection?’ dealing with the ongoing debates within WIPO. Though I don’t regard this post highly from an academic perspective, it does ignite some thoughts which I would like to pen down here. As the post notes, “The World Intellectual Property Organization is a successful United Nations agency if success is measured by its generated income and the number of international…

Guest Post: Groundless threat of Infringement proceedings- A Comparison spanning a few India IP Legislations

by Mathews P. George September 20, 2014

1 Comment

Shashank Mangal is a fifth year student of ILS Law College, Pune. He is the Head Student Co-ordinator of the IPR Cell. Further, he is the author of quite a few IP papers and guest posts in SPICY IP. In this post, he discusses ‘groundless threat of infringement proceedings’ from the perspective of some of the IP statutes. Groundless threat of Infringement proceedings- A Comparison spanning a few India IP Legislations It’s always the patentees’, authors’, registered proprietors’ and all…

Interim injunction application against release of “DHOOM 3” via satellite broadcast denied

by Mathews P. George July 18, 2014

Leave a Comment

The Bombay High Court, in its recent judgment in Mansoob Haider v. Yashraj Films Pvt Ltd, refused to grant interim injunction against release of “DHOOM 3” via satellite broadcast. The judgment reaffirmed the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in R.G. Anand v. M/s. Delux Films & Ors. This post shall focus on the principle of law involved in this case. At the outset, I would like to commend Justice G.S. Patel for his clarity of thought which is…

Innovation Others Overlaps in IP

Indian Budget 2014 – Highlights & Comments

by Mathews P. George July 11, 2014

Leave a Comment

The Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley presented the Budget for 2014-15 (“Budget 2014”) yesterday. I intend to highlight the relevant proposals and make some comments in this regard. Kindly note that my comments do not, in any manner, reflect my views on other parts of the budget. A budget is essentially a policy statement of the government. It does reflect its priorities and understanding on various issues. The Budget 2014 puts forward some salubrious proposals. I am, however, inclined to…

Others

Introducing Prashant’s article in LI on judicial reforms

by Mathews P. George June 27, 2014

Leave a Comment

Prashant has recently given an excellent opinion in LI titled ‘To fix the most fundamental problems of the Indian judiciary, we must finish what Fali & others started’. As someone who advocates quality, outcome oriented reforms in judiciary; I strongly recommend this write-up to the legal fraternity. The present government, which came to power on a strong mandate, enjoys an unparalleled opportunity to address the serious lacunae in the justice delivery mechanism – especially when Mr. Arun Jaitley and Mr. Ravi Shankar…

Event

Call for Natural Justice Fellowship Program Applications and Internship Applications

by Mathews P. George June 25, 2014

Leave a Comment

Natural Justice, a reputed international NGO working towards biodiversity conservation and strengthening local communities, has called for applications for the Natural Justice Fellowship Program and the Internship program. Note that the Fellowship carries with it a monthly honorarium of twenty thousand rupees. 4 July 2014 is the deadline for the fellowship program. The internship positions are unpaid. Internship applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. For details, see here. As I know from various sources, Natural Justice is a…

A Note on M/S. Jagdamba Impex v. M/S. Tristar Products Pvt. Ltd

by Mathews P. George May 23, 2014

5 Comments

Background The Delhi HC, in M/S. Jagdamba Impex (“Appellant” who is the original defendant) v. M/S. Tristar Products Pvt. Ltd (“Respondent” who is the original plaintiff) (FAO No. 128/2014 & CM Nos. 7778-79/2014 & FAO No. 129/2014 & CM Nos. 7782-83/2014), examined the applicability of Section 15(2) of Copyright Act, 1957. The first appeal was filed under Order 43 Rule 1(r) CPC impugning the order of the trial court dated 19.2.2014 which had earlier allowed the application of the Respondent…

SPICY IP TIDBIT: Govt for discussion paper on royalty payment ceiling

by Mathews P. George May 10, 2014

Leave a Comment

Background We had earlier reported that the Indian government, in 2009, waived the requirement of prior government approval in case of payment of royalty by Indian companies to multinational corporations and allowed such payments through the automatic route. Later, we also carried a Business Standard report which stated that the aforesaid relaxation is being used by the MNCs to divert a major portion of the profits made by their Indian arms in the form of royalty payments and technology transfer…

Trademark

SPICY IP TIDBIT: Row over ‘ISEED’ mark

by Mathews P. George April 25, 2014

Leave a Comment

According to Business Standard report, a Gurgaon court issued an interim order restraining a management institute from using its name and acronym ‘ISEED’ noting that it is deceptively similar to the name of another business school, ‘iSEED’. The petitioner, while contending prior use, drew attention to the pending application for the registration of the trademark ‘iSEED’. As it is an interim order, the Court wouldn’t have dealt with the merits of the case. In this context, I would like to…

Shobhit { Mathews, on your point (i), the point is not over-valuation or under-valuation anymore, but correct valuation. If a brand owner 'correctly values' its IP, for perhaps 98% of... }
Mathews P. George { Thanks for the comments. i) It is not clear as to how this judgment will lead to over-valuation and flooding of cases in the high court. The more... }
Priya Sharma { I wasn't aware that one protects the design of the jewellery by copyrighting it. I think this will really make it possible for one to understand the importance... }
Akeo Blockchain Development { Hi Adarsh, Thanks for the information, very insightful post with clarity. Keep-up the good work }
Tom Bale { Thank you so much for the post you do and also I like your post. Now a days trade mark registration is on demand as people need this... }