Author name: Sumathi Chandrasekharan

There’s a giant tussle on show in India over a small trademark. Mint gives us the lowdown on what looks like it might be a prolonged battle between Kishore Biyani of Pantaloon Retail and Anil Ambani of Reliance ADAG : and all this over the mark ‘Big Bazar.’ An overview: Reliance ADAG applied for the trademark in November 2006, and claims no exclusive right to ‘Big Bazar’, but has registered for ‘Reliance Big Bazar’ as its preferred tag. Ambani’s conglomerate […]

How often have you heard stories of hundred-rupee notes surreptitiously slipped into the inside flap of the folder slid across the table to that greasy-palmed government official in that dank office? And you have, no doubt, wondered if you will ever live to see the system change… For those of you who read the city pages of your daily newspaper carefully enough, will recall those three-centimeter, one column, stories of our investigative agency’s hunts, of many a guilty sarkari serpent,

Mango season has begun, and I suppose it’s appropriate that the Mazaa trademark (one of the few packaged mango drinks on the market) should be fought over at this time of year. Two separate articles, in Economic Times and Business Standard, report that Bisleri, the biggest packaged-water player in India, is planning legal action against Coca-Cola (CC) India for attempting to register the Mazaa trademark in other parts of the world. The story so far:Bisleri claims CC had applied to

Auto major Chrysler’s South African arm has complained against a local ad run by Mahindra & Mahindra, which uses its automobile marquee “jeep”, saying it owns the trademark to the world’s oldest sport utility vehicle of World War II vintage. An agency report on Sify says that “The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (Asasa) is looking at the matter even as Mahindra and Mahindra says it used “jeep” with a lower case to denote the generic name for the