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

Kerala HC ends suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukal deity trademark – II

by Mathews P. George October 12, 2013

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[*Long Post] Analysis of the judgment I shall analyse the judgment in this post. At the outset, I would like to state that I am a positivist. I believe in an impartial legal analysis of the given set of facts devoid of any moral argument whatsoever. For the following reasons, I argue that the extant legal framework impliedly prohibits the registration of marks such as the Instant Marks and the instant judgment is, therefore, legally incorrect. [For my…

Trademark

Kerala HC ends suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukal deity trademark – I

by Mathews P. George October 12, 2013

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I had earlier reported that the Kerala HC ended suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukaldeity trademark and declined to grant any relief on merits. Broadly speaking, the HC held that the grant doesn’t violate Trade Marks Act, 1999 (“TM Act”) and Constitution of India. I intend to analyse the aforesaid judgment dated 12 September 2013 in these posts. In the first post, I shall present an abstract of the judgment. I shall analyse the judgment in the second…

Trademark

Breaking News: Kerala HC ends suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukal deity trademark

by Mathews P. George September 12, 2013

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We reported that the Attukal Bhagawathy Temple Trust (“Trust”) in Kerala had secured trademark protection for the picture of its deity (Trademark No. 1420800) and the title ‘Sabarimala of Women’ (Trademark No. 1420799) under Class 42 (for temple Services, social services, welfare services and cultural activities). The Division Bench of the Kerala High Court initiated suo moto case against the aforesaid registrations in early 2009 based on a petition faxed by Mr. Praveen Raj. The High Court later appointed Mr….

Uncategorized

Re-imposing curbs on royalty payments to foreigners

by Mathews P. George August 23, 2013

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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…

Introducing ‘Principles for Intellectual Property provisions in Bilateral and Regional agreements’

by Mathews P. George July 2, 2013

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I intend to introduce you all to the write-up ‘Principles for Intellectual Property provisions in bilateral and regional agreements’ (“Principles”) released by Max Planck Institute available here. The Principles recommends international rules and procedures that can achieve a better, mutually advantageous and balanced regulation of international IP. The Principles is open for signature [here] for anyone who shares the objectives. The Principles is divided into two parts: Part One – Observations and Considerations and Part Two – Recommendations. Part One – Observations…

SPICY IP TIDBIT: IPAB reverts “DARJEELING LOUNGE” matter to Registrar

by Mathews P. George April 26, 2013

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Background ITC Limited, the appellant, applied for the mark “DARJEELING LOUNGE” which was advertised on 07.02.2005. Notice of opposition was served on the appellant on 22.12.2005 (which is disputed) by the Tea Board (the respondent). The appellant filed the counter statement on 08.03.2006. Observing that the notice of opposition was served on the appellant on 22.12.2005, the deputy Registrar held that the counter statement was filed beyond the statutory period. Further, as per the impugned order, notice was served vide…

SPICY IP TIDBIT: Tea Board refused interim injunction in Tea Board – ITC ‘Darjeeling’ dispute

by Mathews P. George April 20, 2013

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As we reported earlier, the Tea Board of India had earlier lost its appeal before the Calcutta High Court for the purpose of obtaining injunction against the Indian conglomerate ITC Limited, and its hospitality/hotel chain, from using the word ‘Darjeeling‘ in connection with its tea lounge. In its order dated 24 August 2011, the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court upheld the earlier decision of the Single Judge (which we reported here and here), stating that the injunction had…

Trademark

Delhi HC on trademark protection for domain name

by Mathews P. George April 11, 2013

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The Delhi High Court, in its recent judgment in Tata Sons Ltd & Anr. v. Arno Palmen& Anr., dealt with trademark protection for domain names. The suit was instituted by the plaintiffs against the defendants seeking permanent injunction against the defendants from using the trademark/domain name “WWW.TATAINFOTECH.IN” or any other mark/domain name which is identical with or deceptively similar to the plaintiffs’ trademarks – “TATA” and “TATA INFOTECH”. The instant dispute is another instance of cybersquatting. Cybersquatting (also known as…

Innovation

Standing Committee Report on ‘The Universities Research and Innovation Bill, 2012′ – II

by Mathews P. George March 12, 2013

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(Continued…) Apprehension about easy entry of foreign Universities in India The Committee was of the view that in view of the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 envisaging regulation of entry and operations of foreign universities in the country, it is improper to provide an alternative and comparatively easier route to foreign universities through the proposed legislation without any proper checks and balances. According to the Committee, “it does not seem to be a wise move…

Innovation

Standing Committee Report on ‘The Universities Research and Innovation Bill, 2012′ – I

by Mathews P. George March 12, 2013

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The recently released 248th Report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (“Committee”) was highly critical of the Universities Research and Innovation Bill, 2012 (“Bill”) including its fundamental presumptions and framework. I shall introduce the aforesaid Report in these posts. The Universities Research and Innovation Bill, 2012 Despite having one of the largest higher education systems in the world with 600 Universities and 33000 colleges-publicly and privately funded, only a few Indian institutions of learning figure in the list…

Aparajita Lath { Hi Pranab, Thanks for your comment and for explaining the issues involved with 'explainability'. There is a tension between adoption of advanced ML technology and public trust and... }
Lokesh Vyas { Thanks, Aaradhya for your kind words. We really appreciate it. }
Pranab Salian { "Explainability" is the concept that a machine learning (ML) model and its output can be explained in human language terms in a way that makes sense to a... }
Mathews P. George { Thank you, Eashan and Shobith. I updated the post to reflect our discussion. }
Mathews P. George { Thank you for your comments. IP valuation is a tricky business. Even though there are various methods for IP valuation, it may be the case that many IP... }