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…

In an interesting development arising out of a Special Leave Petition (C) No. 18892 of 2017, challenging the interim order of the High Court of Delhi dated March 10, 2017 passed in AZ Tech (India) & Anr. v. Intex Technologies (India) Ltd. & Anr. (FAO (OS) No. 1/2017), the SC expressed its surprise over the…

The Indian Patent Office will now publish in the weekly journal information about list of patent applications for which First Examination Report (FER) has been issued. Though, there has been no official notification issued however, the journals issued from 13th October bear information about list of applications for which FERs have been issued. The information…

In this edition of our newsletter, we have two news pieces to share with our readers in the Copyright sphere in India. 1) With a view to advance and apply “Digital India” campaign to copyright, the Copyright office, as per its notice dated August 31, 2017, has decided to publish on its website http://copyright.gov.in the following information…

The Delhi High Court while considering an injunction application highlighted the importance of initiating timely action when safeguarding one’s rights. The Plaintiff, MEX Switchgears Pvt. Ltd (MEX) filed the suit against the Defendants, Omex Cables Industries and Ors alleging trademark infringement, passing off, damages etc. MEX filed the suit to safeguard its rights in the…

The following note examines the Indian Patent office position on grant of Industrial Design protection to Graphical User Interfaces and analyses a recent decision by the office which indicates that, though, a separate class exists which recognizes protection of such designs, the office is reluctant to register them, taking the view the graphical user interface…