The new year brought new hopes for Monsanto with the Supreme Court setting aside a Division Bench order of the Delhi High Court dated April 11 2018 which held the Monsanto patent for Bt cotton invalid. Background The genesis of the dispute between the parties is a sub-licence agreement dated February 21 2004 in which…

Two cosmetic firms are at loggerheads over trademark rights in ‘Heaven’ for use in relation to cosmetics. Gurnam Singh (Gurnam) has filed a suit before the Delhi High Court to safeguard its rights in the registered mark Blue Heaven and restrain G.I. Cosmetics (GIS) from using the mark ‘Miss Heaven’ in relation to nail polish,…

Two education societies based in Pune are up in arms over use of the mark ORCHID in relation to providing education services/ running of a school. The present post discusses Appeal preferred by Sipra Education Society (Sipra) against the order of Pune District Court restraining them from using the mark “Spring Orchid”. Both Sipra and…

The Delhi High Court vide order dated 12th December, 2018 sentenced the Director of a company to fifteen days civil imprisonment for non-compliance of the injunction order. The dispute between the parties was over the mark CITI. The Plaintiff, Citi Group Inc. and Ors (Citi) filed suit against the Defendants, Citicorp Business and Financial Services…

Patent office take steps for being a Smart Office:The Indian Patent and Trademarks Offices have considered the need to build efficiency adapting technology to make prosecution quicker. Towards achieving this objective, both offices have now started to provide option of conducting hearing through video conferencing. In addition to this, the Controller General of Patents, Designs…

The online marketplaces set by e-commerce portals claiming to be Intermediaries were under scrutiny by the Delhi High Court.  The portals currently enjoy immunity under safe harbour provisions laid out in the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. This was examined by the Single Judge of the Delhi High Court in a series of cases brought by Christian Louboutin…

The Indian Patent Office has released draft amendment rules on December 4th 2018. The majority changes are in view of expediting examination of the applications and the provision of having the bench of controller/s for deciding pre-grant opposition matters in contrast to the single controller as per the existing practice. With respect to expediting the…

In a hard hitting judgement, the Delhi High Court dismissed the case of a logistics company (Navigators Logistics Ltd) that sought to restraint its ex employees and an independent contractor working in logistics sector from using confidential data, customer database, accounts information, airway drawings, airway bills templates, plans, reports, taxes and other financial information. The…

‘Mankind’ and ‘Mercykind’ two words which in common parlance relate to humanity and forgiveness was the bone of contention in an action before the Delhi High Court between two pharmaceutical entities operating under the Mercykind and Mankind tradename.  Mankind Pharma Ltd (Mankind) filed suit against Mercykind Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd (Mercykind) alleging trademark infringement and passing…

India is removing policy barriers to attract investment, while policy initiatives designed to improve IP rights enforcement look set to yield results. However, the availability of infringing, counterfeit and lookalike products is also on the rise. To encourage IP rights holders to invest in the manufacture and distribution of their products in India, the government…

The Madras high Court in an Appeal from order of Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) opined the need and importance of the technical expert/ scientific advisor opinion in the patent disputes. Although, Section 115 of the Indian Patent Act provides for appointment of scientific advisor to assist the courts in providing opinion on technical aspect…

Recently, Amway Corporation (now known as Alticor Inc.) a direct selling company operating in consumer healthcare space obtained “John Doe” order from the Delhi High Court against the shopkeepers/stockist who were selling Alticor products through illegitimate and unauthorized channels. Alticor argued that they are a direct selling entity and in full compliance with the guidelines…