[Part I] Going Green as a Garnish—A Brief Analyses of Green Trademarks Situation in India and Related Ethos

/ By / Trademark

With an increasing number of corporations “going green” with their products, greenwashing seems to be the latest “it” factor for companies to boost their revenue. In this two part post, Dr. Sunanda Bharti explains this phenomenon and suggests ways through which Trademarks Act and other relevant legislations could step in to ensure that the public is not fooled by the blatantly terming their products as “green”. In part I of the post she explains the concepts of greenwashing and green […]

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Too Much, Yet Too Little: An Examination of Delhi HC’s “Andaz Apna Apna” Interim Order

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

In an interesting development for all the movie (and IP) buffs, recently the Delhi High Court passed an interim injunction order against unauthorized use and commercial exploitation of character names, traits, and dialogues of the popular Hindi film “Andaaz Apna Apna”. Kartik Sharma takes a look at the order and explains how it, inter alia, fails to take a nuanced view towards personality rights, character merchandising, fair use and more. Kartik is a fourth-year student at the National Law School

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Operationalising India’s Biopiracy Watch List: A Strategic Proposal for Inclusive Global IP Accountability

/ By / Biological Diversity

A few weeks ago, when India was featured in the 2025 USTR Section 301 Priority Watch List, Dr. Anson CJ explored the idea of whether India should come up with its own watch list to monitor biopiracy. Taking that idea forward, Achyuth B Nandan explains why the Biopiracy watchlist is the need of the hour and how it can be implemented in light of India’s Biodiversity Laws. Achyuth is an LLM candidate at Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law,

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Infringement or Not? DHC Refers Case to Larger Bench to Decide on Actions Against Registered Trademarks

/ By / Trademark

Can a registered trademark owner sue another one for infringement? If no, then how will the provision in Section 124 (5) of the Trademarks Act (“the Act”)  function, allowing courts to pass interim reliefs against a proprietor of a registered trademark? A Division Bench (“DB”) of the Delhi High Court (“DHC”) has recently encountered a Pandora’s box of a case, throwing up these important issues concerning trademark infringement cases. In Abros Sports International Pvt. Ltd. v. Ashish Bansal & Ors,

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (May 19 – May 25)

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

What is patent quality and why does it matter? – A two-part post defining patent quality, an interim injunction granted under PPVFRA with some glaring errors in the order, and the Calcutta HC’s refusal to hold the 20-Year Patent Term as Unconstitutional! The SpicyIP Summer School Application deadline is also now over. Here’s a roundup of our blog posts, case summaries, and top IP developments in the country and the world this week. Anything we are missing out on? Drop

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Patent Quality and Performance Metrics: More is not better! (Part II)

/ By / Others, Patent

Continuing my discussion from the first part of this post, in this post, I will examine the performance metrics put in place by IPO and try to calculate the number of hours available for an Examiner and the Controller to complete a task and how even with generous assumptions, it is clear that the current quota system is too unreasonable and burdensome. Finally, I will discuss what this means for the Patent Office and the Indian IP landscape.  Too little

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Patent Quality and Performance Metrics: More is not better! (Part I)

/ By / Others, Patent

The word ‘patent quality’, when heard for the first time, sounds a bit mysterious and esoteric. A close friend of mine, when I told her my next post is on patent quality, she was a bit lost and asked me, “What does patent quality mean?” Yet, patent quality has been a hotly debated topic and also a concern raised both in India and abroad. Previous bloggers have raised questions on the quality of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office

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Calcutta High Court Refuses to Hold 20-Year Patent Term from Date of Application as Unconstitutional

/ By / Patent

In a matter concerning a writ petition challenging the constitutionality of the 20 year time period from the date of the application, a DB has upheld the Single Judge order rejecting the writ petition. Taking a look at the DB judgement, SpicyIP intern Hruthika Addlagatta highlights the missing discussion on Section 45(3) and how the case flags an important concern of the applicants- delayed examination of the patent applications. Hruthika is a 1st year law student from NALSAR University of

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An Update about the Results of 2024 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on IP Law

/ By / Others

It was brought to our notice that the submission, which had previously secured second place in the 2024 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on IP Law, contains substantial portions taken from a piece that the author had previously co-authored and submitted to another competition. After an internal review, it was determined that the above allegations are true and the concerned submission, by Aditya Sushant Jain for the essay titled “The Copyright Black Box In Training AI Solving The Rubix Cube Through

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A two-panel meme in the style of the "This Is Fine" comic. The top panel has text: "When the Court relies on the Plaintiff's in-house lab report for scientific evidence...". The bottom panel shows a cartoon dog calmly sitting at a table in a room engulfed in flames. The dog says, “Tests? Crop guidelines? Independent expert? Nah, this is fine.” Below the image, a caption reads: "🔥 Scientific rigour left the chat."

Interim Injunction Granted under PPVFRA!

/ By / Plant Variety Protection

Perhaps for the first time, a Hyderabad Court granted an interim injunction application under the PPVFRA. To me, however, the order stands out for all the wrong reasons. The Court, in deciding the injunction, relies solely on the Plaintiff’s in-house laboratory to prima facie decide infringement. It omitted to appoint a scientific expert u/s. 66 of the Act while deciding crucial scientific questions. It further failed to delineate the parameters for deciding an interim injunction application under the PPVFFRA. In

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