Choco Wars: The Attack of the Mars (Part I) #Slogan Mark #”Have a Break”

Episode 3 THE ATTACK OF THE MARS In a jurisdiction far, far away, Nestle and Mars, the confectionary behemoths, battle it out on the floors of the European Court of Justice. The Mark “Have a break…Have a Kit Kat” was already registered as a TM by Nestle, but now, Nestle is trying to register “Have a break” in isolation. Will Mars be able to stop Nestle…   The following discussion, despite being based upon a 2005 ECJ Judgment (C-353/03), is extremely relevant to TM […]

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (January 28 – February 3)

This week’s thematic highlight was Sreyoshi’s post on the controversy brewing between Indian textile artists and label ‘People Tree’ and the high fashion brand Dior, on what appears to be the copying of the former’s block print and artwork by the latter. The post examines the controversy in light of potential copyright claims that the designers may have and further uses the example to discuss the protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions in the context of cultural appropriation, and why we

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Delhi High Court Vacates Injunction in Plaintiff’s Favour in a Case on the Design of Ball Point Pens

In a comprehensive and well-reasoned judgment issued last month, Justice Valmiki Mehta of the Delhi High Court (“Court”) vacated an interim injunction in a design infringement case. While the facts of the case are fairly straightforward and the conclusion arrived at by the court is founded upon a reaffirmation of well settled legal principles, some consequences flowing from the judgment merit deeper scrutiny. The judgment arose out of an application for the grant of injunction filed by the plaintiff, Pentel

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People Tree v. Dior: IP Infringement, Cultural Appropriation or Both?

Last week, Indian media was abuzz with the news of High Fashion brand, Christian Dior having allegedly plagiarised certain designs from a small, Indian art collective and store known as ‘People Tree’. According to reports – which carried allegations raised by the collective – Dior’s Cruise 2018 collection contained a dress that contained exact reproductions of the Block Printing designs created, and sold by ‘People Tree’ in India. This would have gone wholly unnoticed if not for the January Issue

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SpicyIP Cited in Economic Survey of India 2017-18

We are thrilled to bring to our readers’ notice that SpicyIP has been cited in the Economic Survey 2017-18 that was tabled in the Parliament by the Government on Monday. Chapter 9 of the Survey (titled ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Next Frontier: Timely Justice’) in footnote 16 refers to a SpicyIP post authored by Prashant while discussing the grant of injunctions by courts as one of the possible reasons for pendency and delay in disposal of economic cases. Prashant, in

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Announcing the 6th SpicyIP Fellowship 2018-19!

[Edit: The application deadline for the SpicyIP Fellowship as well as the SpicyIP Research Fellowship has been extended to March 15, 2018.] Have an interest in IP law? Love legal research and writing? Look no further! Apply immediately to become a SpicyIP Fellow! Year after year, our fellowship series has attracted some of the brightest minds to the world of IP. We are now pleased to announce the 6th edition of the SpicyIP Fellowship for 2018-19.  SpicyIP Fellowship 2018-19 For those of you who are

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SpicyIP Events: CIIPC Special Lecture by Prof. Josef Drexl on ‘Sense of Shame as a Virtue’ [NLU Delhi, February 10]

We are pleased to announce that the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC), National Law University, Delhi, is organising a special lecture by Prof. Josef Drexl (Director, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich) on ‘Sense of Shame as a Virtue’ –  Why is it that the invisible hand of the ‘attention’ economy promotes post-truth politics and how to solve the problem’. This public lecture will be held on February 10, 2018, 3:00 PM, at the Justice Y.

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Interpreting Invalidity under Section 124 of the Trade Marks Act

We are pleased to bring to you a guest by Arun Mohan on the recent decision of Supreme Court in Patel Field Marshall v. P.M. Diesel, which we had covered here. Arun is a graduate of the London School of Economics and has experience in working on intellectual property and commercial matters, in India and internationally. He has worked on various prominent IP disputes including appearing for Rajinikanth in the recent landmark decision on celebrity rights, in the TVS v. Bajaj patent dispute and

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (January 21 – 27)

The thematic highlight for this week is Divij’s two-part post examining the jurisprudence laid down by the Delhi High Court while determining online jurisdiction. In Part I, Divij outlines the context for his post, highlighting the problematic way in which jurisprudence around online jurisdiction has developed. He does this by studying four notable cases decided by the Delhi HC, and notes that although these cases have similar factual contexts, the HC has come to contrary decisions in these cases. Divij

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Government Releases Reports on IPR in India – Focus on Access to Healthcare, Remedies for Piracy

The Centre for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), a body established under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), to guide policy in IPR and create a conducive environment for IP awareness and enforcement, recently released two documents as an assessment of the Indian IPR regime – Intellectual Property Rights Regime In India- Initiatives by the Government; Intellectual Property Rights Regime In India- An Overview While the first document outlines some important institutional reforms by the

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