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).

Patent

Indian granted patents…diminishing focus on future enforceability?

by Mathews P. George July 19, 2011

17 Comments

Guest Post by Tarun Khurana Tarun Khurana, Partner in Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys and its IP Consulting Firm – Institute of Intellectual Property Research & Development (IIPRD), has over 10 years of experience in Intellectual Property matters. In this guest post, he examines whether the Indian Patent Office has lived upto the expectation of granting patents which are enforceable. Objective The Indian Patent Act, 2005, like municipal statutes of other TRIPS compliant countries, incorporates the patentability grounds…

Trademark

Delhi HC on remedies pertaining to trademark infringement and passing off

by Mathews P. George June 26, 2011

4 Comments

In its judgment in M/S Mahashian Di Hatti Ltd. vs Mr. Raj Niwas, Proprietor of MHS, the Delhi High Court re-affirmed the differential evidentiary standards prescribed for trademark infringement and passing off. FACTS The plaintiff uses the registered logo, MDH within three hexagon device on red colour background, in its business of manufacturing and selling spices & condiments. The aforesaid logo has been in use since 1949 in respect of various products such as “Kashmiri Mirch” and “Kasoori Methi”. Registered…

Event

IIPS Annual IP Essay Competition, 2011

by Mathews P. George June 22, 2011

4 Comments

The Institute of Intellectual Property Studies (IIPS) is conducting a national IP essay competition on “THE ROLE OF THE LEGISLATURE, THE GOVERNMENT, JUDICIARY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISES IN PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN INDIA”. In the context of the roles of any of the specific bodies mentioned above, participants may choose any one of the following topics: A) Compulsory licensing of Copyrights: Public interest and entertainment industry B) Is open source policy a competitive alternative to monopoly rights or can the…

Trademark

Bombay HC on passing off & shape of Vodka bottle

by Mathews P. George May 25, 2011

5 Comments

The Bombay High Court recently delivered an interesting judgment pertaining to passing off / trademark law. The dispute was over the shape adopted by the defendant for its Vodka bottle. Gorbatschow Wodka Kg v. John Distilleries Limited Facts The plaintiff which owned one of the top fifteen premium Vodka brands in the world – “Gorbatschow Wodka”, marketed it in a bottle which was quite distinctive in shape. The shape was registered in various jurisdictions. In India, claiming use since December,…

Event

World Copyright Summit in Brussels on 7th & 8th June, 2011 – Javed Akhtar to be the keynote speaker

by Mathews P. George May 18, 2011

Determination of prima facie validity of registered mark

by Mathews P. George May 14, 2011

14 Comments

The Delhi High Court once again examined the prima facie validity of a registered mark in its judgment in Bhole Baba Milk Food Industries Ltd v. Parul Food Specialities (P) Ltd. The Court had to decide plaintiff’s application for interlocutory injunction qua use of word “Krishna” (which is part of its registered mark) in the label mark “Parul’s Lord Krishna” of the defendant. A similar examination of registered mark was earlier carried out in Marico Ltd v. Agro Tech Foods…

Trademark

ANOTHER INSTANCE OF OUTSOURCING – HIGHLY UNHEALTHY PHENOMENA

by Mathews P. George April 8, 2011

Trade Marks Official in CBI net

by Mathews P. George March 5, 2011

5 Comments

Prof. Shamnad Basheer had already covered the arrest of ND Kasturi, Deputy Registrar of Trademarks by CBI officials [available here ]. SPICY IP is now given to believe that “Manjal” file is one amongst the ten odd files files taken from Mrs. Kasturi’s office by CBI for further investigation. [ For our posts on “Manjal” issue, see here, here & here. ] Times of India reported the arrest a day after, available here. This post is a summary of that…

Trademark

MANJAL REMOVED FROM TRADEMARK REGISTRY – II

by Mathews P. George February 22, 2011

4 Comments

In my earlier post, I had discussed the Order dated 21st January, 2011 which removed “Manjal” from the trade marks registry. “Manjal” is the Malayalam / Tamil translation for turmeric / haldi (in Hindi). The mark was registered by M/s Oriental Extractions Pvt. Ltd (hereinafter Oriental Extractions) in Class – 3 for “ayurvedic bath soap”. The rectification application was filed by Mr. S. Sivasubramanyan, Proprietor of M/s Divine Pharmaceuticals, Kollam before Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks. The Order noted that…

Trademark

‘MANJAL’ REMOVED FROM TRADE MARK REGISTRY

by Mathews P. George February 9, 2011

1 Comment

The mark “Manjal” was removed from the trade marks registry vide Order dated 21st January, 2011. “Manjal” is the Malayalam / Tamil translation for turmeric / haldi (in Hindi). It was registered by M/s Oriental Extractions Pvt. Ltd in Class – 3 for “ayurvedic bath soap”. The instant application for rectification was filed by Mr. S. Sivasubramanyan, Proprietor of M/s Divine Pharmaceuticals, Kollam before Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks. Interestingly, none appeared for the registered proprietor. This Order will have…

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... }