Author name: Mathews P. George

Mathews is a graduate of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He pursued LLM in 'IP and Competition Law' from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (a joint collaboration of Max Plank Institute for Innovation and Competition, University of Augsburg, Technical University of Munich and George Washington University, Washington). His areas of practice include Technology Law in general (IPR, Competition Law, Data Protection Law etc) Corporate Law, Contract Law and Public Law (Constitutional Law and Criminal Law). He practises law and policy at both national and international levels. Presently, he is in Kerala. In addition to litigation before various courts in Kerala, he is also involved in various national and international policy and academic initiatives.

Bombay HC on passing off & shape of Vodka bottle

/ By / Trademark

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, […]

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

/ By / Event

The World Copyright Summit will be held in Brussels on 7th & 8th June, 2011. It is organised by International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). After two successful editions in Brussels (2007) and Washington, DC (2009), over 600 participants will attend the third edition of the Summit. World famous creators, rights organisations, music and books publishers, TV and film producers, policy makers, media and content providers, ISPs and telecom operators, hardware manufacturers, legal and technology experts and

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Determination of prima facie validity of registered mark

/ By / Trademark

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

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ANOTHER INSTANCE OF OUTSOURCING – HIGHLY UNHEALTHY PHENOMENA

/ By / Trademark

[* Slightly long post] Outsourcing commonly refers to contracting out of a business function – one previously performed in-house to an external provider. The Indian statutory authorities appear to have embraced this phenomena which amount to candid admission of their lackluster infrastructure / supporting services. Very recently, we covered the outsourcing of patent searches to CSIR, India’s largest public funded patentee by the Patent Office [available here]. In this post, I shall test the vires of this phenomena specific to

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Trade Marks Official in CBI net

/ By / Trademark

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

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MANJAL REMOVED FROM TRADEMARK REGISTRY – II

/ By / Trademark

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

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‘MANJAL’ REMOVED FROM TRADE MARK REGISTRY

/ By / Trademark

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

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The 1st Annual SLR – Sage Essay Competition

/ By / Uncategorized

Socio-Legal Review (SLR), the inter-disciplinary, peer-reviewed and student edited journal published by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and Sage Publications, the independent international publisher of books, journal and international media, have announced “The 1st Annual SLR – Sage Essay Competition”. Topics ( any one of the following): 1. John Milbank argues that, “Liberal principles will always ensure that the rights of the individual override those of the group.” For this reason, he concludes, “liberalism cannot defend corporate

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YET ANOTHER TROUBLE FOR BRITANNIA

/ By / Trademark

ET and other business dailies including Business Standard reported yet another trouble for Britannia. According to news reports, US based Kraft Foods sued Nusli Wadia-owned Britannia industries for trademark infringement of its popular “Oreo” cookies. For more about Oreo cookies see here. The distinctive face of an Oreo cookie In a suit filed in the Delhi High Court, Kraft claimed that Britannia’s recently-introduced “Treat-O” biscuit is a copy of its cream-filled sandwich cookies. According to Kraft, Britannia copied the specific

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Patent office rejects Abbott’s application on HIV drug

/ By / Uncategorized

The Indian Patent office has rejected Abbott’s patent application on its heat-stable version of Lopinavir/Ritonavir drug ( sold under the brand name “Kaletra” ) on grounds including failure to satisfy inventive step. The rejection was in response to pre- grant oppositions filed by I-Mak , Cipla, Okasa Ltd and Matrix Lab Ltd. The decision paves the way for access to life-saving medication for patients across the world, noted Tahir Amin, director of initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), one

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