Lex Protector

Virnetx Upsets the Apple Cart

Written By: Ashka Vora

The very famous tech giant Apple is in news again and surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) for not a new reason. Well, yes it is again a legal battle for a patent lawsuit with Virnetx, an internet security software company, which often gets annoyed for being portrayed as a ‘Patent troll company’. Allegedly, they have expanded their internet security patent portfolio widely…

WHEN FREE BECOMES A FORTRESS!

Written By: Godhuli Nanda

Amidst the month long New Year celebrations of 2016, the controversial battle for the safekeeping of “Free Basics” was taking a wild turn. For the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the month of January was quite busy with floating papers, debates and what not. And by February they were hip deep with millions of grievances. But even after being under…

Written by: Rojalin Dhal

“A debacle is often anticipated whenever a small entity has tried to challenge a huge well-funded entity”. Generally, an anticipation is a forecast of something which may or may not happen. Today’s topic is similarly on a small entity NTC (National Tobacco Corporation) who tried to challenge a big corporation (ITC Limited) when being sued by the latter and the end result…

Trademark Registration Process All Set to Become Expensive in India

Written By: Rojalin Dhal

It’s official now. From 1 January 2016 onwards, you have to shell more money if you want your trademark to have that (R) symbol on its top. On 19th November 2015, the ministry of commerce and industry (MCI) issued a draft to amend some of the trademark rules in order to make the trademark registration process simpler and expedite. Last year year only the filing fee was…

Indian Salt Gets ‘Nostalgic’ After Big Patent Victory over Uniliver

Written By: Rojalin Dhal

85 years ago, India’s greatest freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi had initiated the famous revolutionary movement called “Salt Satyagraha” to produce India’s own salt which had paved way for demolishing British monopoly over salt in the Colonial India. The history has once again repeated itself. India has won the Patent war over salt for patenting the method of producing…

King of Milk products, “Amul” is a well-known trademark now!

Written By: Avasi Mohanty

Every household’s favorite dairy product brand “AMUL” has added another feather to its cap. Going with the direction of Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), mark “Amul” is accorded the status of a well-known trademarkin India , sharing platform with the likes of Coca-Cola, Kodak, Nestle and Microsoft. Anand Milk Federation Union Limited (Amul) is a…

Patent attorneys use the term patent drafting to specify the process of writing the patent description and claims, which is the crucial part of all the patent application and, if allowed, of the granted patent specification. Generally, it is the process where the patent attorney’s turn the inventor’s ideas into a document which is designed to avail the best patent possible.

KITKAT Bland Cadbury’s Sweetness

Written By: Rojalin Dhal

Nestle has been in news for all bad reasons recently, especially in India, for its product “maggi”. The damaged reputation has been allayed to some extent by the “KitKat” victoryas it won one of the longest running legal battles against Cadbury. As a result of which, the UK’s community trademark office has granted Nestle’s application to trademark the four-fingered shape…

Row over rasgulla’s place of birth continues

Written by: Avasi Mohanty

The squeezy cheesy balls continues to be a mysterious problem to solve. There has been much talk over the past few months about the origin of rasgulla between the states of Odisha and West Bengal. Rasgullais a brown or white Indian cottage cheese ball dipped in sugar syrup, which tempts every other person who has a sweet tooth. For the people of Eastern India, it is not…

Trademark search is one of the staple tool required before opting to register your trademark. However, trademark registration is one of the robust way to safeguard your brand and along with it is also a way to avert others from making use of it.

It is really very crucial to perform a trademark search before applying for its registration so as to prevent any of the trademark infringement in future. However, it is significant to gain the knowledge that you are free to utilize it in so far it is not similar or identical to any of the registered trademark or any of the subject of a prevailing  pending application for registration of a mark within the same classes of goods or services.

The trademark watch is the staple tool that helps a trademark owner to safeguard his/her registered or unregistered trademarks by identifying potential infringements. While trademark provides the owner with a smooth flow of profitable business, it is the prior responsibility of the owner to protect the trademark by performing trademark watch.

However, business trademark watch enables a proprietor to keep a watch over his competitors and helps identifying infringement by stopping them from misappropriating his trademark without his permission.

Trademark Watch is an effective tool to enforce your trademark rights and conduct your business in a more-healthy manner by keeping an eye over your competitors and potential infringers.

If any of the competitors tries to infringe your business trademark then stringent laws are prescribed in the IPR law.

It’s Green Signal From USPTO For Google’s Smart Contact Lens

Written By: Rosalin Dhal

Innovation knows no boundaries and when there is will (and money :P) to innovate, nobody can stop you. In this techno-freak world, smart gadgets have become an essential part of human sustenance. Forget about touch screen smartphones and solar panels, scientists have developed Invisibility Cloaks that can make even Harry Potter envious. While scientists operating…

Woods leading to Copyright Hodgepodge

Written By: Suhani Pattnaik

Entertainment industry being home to many artistic skills and creative works can be a huge legal minefield. An iota of carelessness can jeopardize the whole cinematographic creation. We have seen movie producers and scriptwriters getting entangled in legal disputes, putting their investment worth millions of dollarsat stake. It’s a common phenomenon where copyright…

What’s In The Name Mr. Hawkings?

Being a celebrity is really worth of having everything. But does this everything allows you to monopolize your name as a trademark, which will have the effect to secluding others from using a similar one in the territory? The question has popped-up (again) because the eminent British physicist Stephen Hawking has recently filed an applicationto trademark his name under classes 016 and 041 before…

Woodland Receives a Cane From Consumer Forum

The recent judgmentdelivered by the Delhi State Consumer Forum against woodland is an eye opener for entities operating in single brand retail. In a short judgment, the forum reprimanded woodland by imposing a fine of INR One lakh for selling goods of a brand other than its own without giving consumers any intimation about the same. The observation with respect to unfair competition was in…

And This Time santabanta.com is Not Joking!

Written By: Avasi Mohanty

Bollywood is widely known to be the breeding ground for Masala. Most of this “Masala” is not only limited to gossip, disputes and patch-ups, but also to several legal snags that keep hopping up due to some reason or the other. Intellectual property squabbles nevertheless are the most popular ones.

Filmmakers and producers are often accused of trademark and copyright…

Delhi High Court Revives Gilead’s Patent Application

In a big setback to the Indian Generic Drug-makers, Delhi High Court has allowed the writ petition filed by Gilead Pharmasset LLC against the Union of India for an adverse order passed against it by the Deputy Controller of Patents & Designs. The Deputy Controller had rejected Gilead’s application for failing to satisfy the criterion under section 3(d)of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 stating that…