The parties engaged in imparting educational and training services vie for rights in the mark “TP Turning Point”. The Plaintiff, Turning Point Institute Private Limited (TPIPL) filed the action before the Delhi High Court alleging passing off, damages, etc, against the Defendants, Turning Point (TP) for using an identical mark/name in relation to identical services,…

Bombay High Court recently ruled in a dispute concerning rights over the title of the Plaintiff’s film Veere Di Wedding which in English is stated to mean “My best friend’s wedding” which was alleged to be deceptively similar to the Defendant’s film title Veere Ki Wedding. The competing titles do convey the same meaning and…

The Delhi High Court recently set aside the interim injunction granted in favour of Columbia Sportswear Company (Columbia Sportswear) and allowed Galaxy Footwear Pvt. Ltd. (Galaxy) to use COLUMBIA mark for footwear. The court in its ruling appears to have taken a narrow view of global reputation of COLUMBIA brand and spill over of reputation…

Bolar Provision provided under Section 107 A of the Indian Patent Act was subject of next round of litigation between Natco and Bayer over Sorafenib (marketed as Nexavar). Natco already holds compulsory license for manufacturing generic version of Sorafenib. Please see our earlier post here and here on compulsory license decision. As is widely acknowledged, the provisions under section…

The Indian Trade Marks Registry recently granted trademark registration for image of the iconic 114-years-old building of ‘Taj Mahal Palace’ hotel in Mumbai, thereby making it the first in the country to secure such trademark registration as depicted below: The story that was widely covered in main stream media with suggestions being made that henceforth…

Auroville Foundation (Auroville) established in 1991 has brought a suit for passing off against Ramaniyam Real Estates Private Limited (Ramaniyam) to stop them from using the name “AUROVALLIE” in relation to real estate project or services in any manner. Auroville in the suit contends: Auroville Foundation is an administrative body of international cultural township, Auroville…

The container design was subject of design infringement and passing off dispute between two Bombay based manufacturer of plastic containers. The question before the Bombay High Court was whether the Defendant’s (Om Plast) product infringes the 1st Plaintiff (Selvel Industries) registered design. The designs of the plaintiff and defendant’s product can be seen below. Selvel has…

The Delhi High Court has recently ruled in a case brought by Carlsberg Breweries A/S against Som Distilleries and Breweries alleging design and trademark infringement, and passing off. Carlsberg’s claim was based on: • the unique and distinctive bottle and trade dress/get-up of its Tuborg beer bottle registered under the Designs Act 2000; • an…

The use of the word “HAUS” was the essence of dispute between two entities in food catering business. The Plaintiff, Foodcraft India Private Limited (Foodcraft) filed passing off action before the Delhi High Court against the Defendants, Saurabh Anand Trading & Ors (Saurabh), to restrain them from using the word “HAUS” in relation to business…

As e-commerce is slowly but steadily gaining ground and more consumers are going on-line for purchasing not only their daily needs but also home appliances and electronic products. In the current scenario, the IP owners are increasingly concerned with widespread availability of counterfeit and look-alike products on e-commerce platform. While IP owners would like that…