Trademark – SpicyIP

SpicyIP Weekly Review (29 June – 5 July)

July 6, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Biological Diversity, Copyright, Drug Regulation, Patent, Trademark

What an eventful week it was, with the post announcing the long-awaited results of the SpicyIP-jhana Blogpost Writing Competition, and posts on legal deposits, black-box AI, and house marks. This and much more in this week’s SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we are missing out on? Drop a comment and let us know. Highlights of the Week Announcing the Results of SpicyIP-jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025 After carefully reviewing a range of thoughtful and insightful entries from participants across the […]

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House Marks without a Doctrine: The Unsettled Law Behind Flipkart vs. Marc

July 3, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

The Supreme Court’s refusal to stay the injunction in Flipkart v. Marc has brought an overlooked trademark question back into focus: can a well-known corporate or “house” brand reduce the likelihood of confusion with a competing mark? Bindushree M argues that while Indian courts increasingly rely on the idea of house marks, the Trademarks Act provides no coherent framework for doing so. Bindushree is a student at NLSIU. House Marks without a Doctrine: The Unsettled Law Behind Flipkart vs. Marc

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (15 June-28 June)

July 1, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

[This weekly review is authored by Vikram Raj Nanda. Vikram is a third-year student at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, with a keen interest in IP law, Competition Law, and Arbitration. His previous posts can be accessed here.] After wrapping up the second edition of SpicyIP Summer School, we are back with the SpicyIP Weekly Review covering the developments from the last 2 weeks. From a historical reflection on the reversionary right in copyright law and its disappearance from

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When Reputation Travels but Goods Do Not: The Delhi HC on Transborder Reputation in the ‘Whistler’ Dispute

June 27, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

The Delhi High Court has once again weighed in on the evolving doctrine of transborder reputation, this time in a dispute over the mark ‘Whistler’ between an Irish whiskey producer and an Indian liquor company. In this post, Vikram Raj Nanda examines how the Court reaffirmed the territoriality principle, the evidentiary threshold it set for proving transborder reputation in the digital age, and what this could mean for future trademark disputes. Vikram is a third-year student at National Law School

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (June 8-June 14)

June 15, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

A three-pass funnel for patent searches and NLUJ’s call for papers for the latest volume of the Journal of Intellectual Property Studies feature in this edition of the SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we are missing out on? Drop a comment and let us know. [Sponsored] 300 to 30 to 5: A Three-Pass Funnel for Patent Searches Under Deadline Finding relevant patents is no longer the bottleneck. The bottleneck is deciding which of the hundreds of relevant records actually matter and

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (May 25-June 7)

June 8, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

[This Weekly Review is authored by Vikram Raj Nanda. Vikram Raj Nanda is a third-year student at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, with a keen interest in IP law, Competition Law, and Arbitration. His previous posts can be accessed here.] Ending May and stepping into June, here is our latest weekly review covering developments from May 25 to June 7. This review brought a mix of contemporary IP disputes and historical reflections. From the DHC’s ruling on keyword advertising

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One more shot at Keyword Advertising……. aaaannndd Hit Wicket!

June 1, 2026 / By Akshat Agrawal / Trademark

On 22 May 2026 the Delhi High Court held that Google infringes the trademark HINDWARE by letting rival sanitary ware sellers bid on that word as a Google Ads keyword. Arul Murugan’s detailed post summarizing the dispute and holdings is here. This post is more about its critique. In a rare final judgment or decree, the HC moves in three steps – allowing to bid on a keyword is “use” of the mark; that keyword is used by Google and

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Public Squares or Private Estates: The Delhi High Court’s Doctrinal Shift in Keyword Advertising

May 29, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

In a significant ruling in Hindware v. Grohe, the Delhi High Court drew a distinction between the use of generic marks and coined, source-identifying marks like “Hindware” as keywords, while simultaneously narrowing the scope of intermediary safe harbour for platforms such as Google. The ruling builds on precedents such as Google v. DRS Logistics and Google LLC v. MakeMyTrip (India) Pvt. Ltd, where the courts have resisted treating keyword bidding as per se trademark infringement, particularly where the marks involved

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (May 18 – May 24)

Entering the last week of May with a post tracing Indian copyright doctrine and what exactly does it protect. Post on the Delhi HC’s ruling in Bansal v. Philips, a consequential SEP/FRAND decision. And a post on the expanding and increasingly amorphous scope of personality rights in India, most recently in the case of Aniruddhacharya Ji Maharaj. Case summaries and IP developments from the country and the globe and much more in this week’s SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we are

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In the Aftermath of Parle: Unsettling Questions for Trade Mark Law

May 25, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

What happens when trademark law privileges filing priority over marketplace reality? The Delhi High Court’s April 10 ruling in the ‘20-20’ dispute raises difficult questions about whether registration can meaningfully coexist with decade-old goodwill, and whether identical marks can survive in the market outside the framework of honest and concurrent use. In this post, Eleen Garg examines the structural tensions the decision leaves unresolved between registry formalism, consumer protection, and passing off. Eleen is a lawyer and is practicing before

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