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Featured image is of a Zara Store in Sydney, as the post is about the Zara trademark and how it got its name. To read more click here.

This town isn’t enough for the two of us : Zara Trademark Dispute

This conflict is between a world-renowned luxury-clothing brand and a renowned restaurant and bar in a city. The Delhi High Court decided the trademark infringement tussle in favor the luxury brand ZARA, not because it is celebrated around the world but simply to protect the brand’s trademark rights. ZARA, an internationally reputed brand, the plaintiff sued Zara Tapas Bar for trademark infringement and sought injunction restraining the defendant from infringement, passing off and dilution of its trademark. The plaintiff contended…
June 16, 2015 Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing, Trademarks 0Comment 1450Views 1Like
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Featured image is of VIT campus, as content of the post is related to VIT

Is There a Trademark in a Name?

“What's in a name? that which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare famously quoted these lines in his creation of the romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Enter 21st century and these famous lines could be debated to the ends of time. In today’s world, where there are fakes of fakes and more fakes than actual products, Shakespeare might have thought differently. Trademark Infringement and Passing off is something that we are all too familiar…
June 11, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 712Views 1Like
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Featured image of peps Spine guard mattress is used, as the post is about a trademark issue related to this. To read the post click here.

Trademark Case Review: PEPS Industries v. Coir Foam

This article is a contribution by Savitran - Intern at BananaIP Counsels The Delhi High Court has ordered an interim injunction against Coirfoam India Pvt. Ltd. to desist it from using a mark identical or similar to ‘Spring Guard’, which is the trademark owned and registered by Peps Industries Pvt. Ltd. To briefly state the facts, the Plaintiff, Peps Industries Pvt. Ltd., is engaged in the business of manufacturing, marketing and selling sleep comfort products such as mattresses, pillows, cushions,…
May 27, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 664Views 1Like
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The Chocolate Wars – Wrangle between Nestle & Cadbury on KitKat Shape TM

In this reigning retail world, even minor details of products that may bring major changes in the market, matter. In this current scenario every company wants to protect its identity through trade mark registrations. The whole story started in the year 2010 when Nestle applied to register trademark for its four-fingered chocolate - KitKat. Cadbury clashed with nestle in filing the trade mark for the KitKat shape. UK Registry of trade mark turned down the application by Nestle after hearing opposition…
May 21, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 667Views 1Like
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Alt. Text: This image depicts the Skype Trademark. This image was used because this post relates to a case involving Skype. Click on the image to read full post.

Phonetic Justice for Trademark

  This article was contributed by Swastika Chakravarti. How important are phonetics in trademarks, you ask? The General Court of the European Union has an answer for you. In deciding a matter between Pay TV giant, Sky and Microsoft (owners of Skype), the Court relied on the similarity of signs in terms of concept and phonetics to deny Microsoft a trademark for Skype in Europe. Holding that the pronunciation of ‘y’ in Skype is no shorter than in Sky, the Court…
May 8, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1164Views 1Like
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This image depicts the registered trademark logo. It is relevant here as the post is about the dispute regarding trademark registration between Hypnos and PEPS . Click on the image to read the full post.

Case Review: Hypnos Ltd. v. PEPS Industries Pvt. Ltd. & Ors

Citation : ORA/126/2012/TM/CH, Order dated 16th April, 2015 Parties Involved : Applicant : 1. Hypnos Limited (UK) Respondents : 1. Hosur Coir Foam Pvt. Ltd. 2. Peps Industries Pvt. Ltd. 3. The Registrar of Trademarks, Trademarks Registry, Chennai Brief Facts : The Applicant, a UK based family run bed manufacturing company, filed a rectification petition to cancel the registration of the ‘HYPNOS’ trademark owned by Respondent No. 1 under Class 20.…
April 24, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 869Views 1Like
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PEPS victorious in Trademark Battle against UK bed manufacturer

A two-year-long trademark litigation between Peps, the largest spring mattress company in India, and a UK bed manufacturer, has culminated with the Indian bed manufacturer emerging victorious! The Trademark Rectification suit was initiated in 2012 by HYPNOS, UK, for removal of the registered and highly popular ‘HYPNOS’ mark of Peps, from the Trademark Registry. The British Company claimed that the mark was famous in India owing to the spill-over of its trans-border reputation. In retaliation, Peps contested HYPNOS UK’s claim that…
April 24, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 573Views 1Like
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This image depicts the title creativity. This image is relevant because this post talks about the real role played by IP protection in creativity. Click on the image to view full post.

Role of Intellectual Property in Promoting Creativity

Does the Intellectual Property Regime play a role in promoting creativity? As stated by most governments, the objective of patent, copyright, design and other laws is to promote the progress of inventive activity and creativity. Are these laws actually achieving their stated objective? While most of us would like to believe that they are, no empirical study has been able to conclusively prove so far that IP laws actually promote creativity. The logical question that follows would be whether we…
April 9, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks 0Comment 584Views 1Like
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Existing Trademark blocks Apple Watch sale in Switzerland

In latest news, Apple has been banned from launching its new Watch in Switzerland as in other European countries, scheduled to be on April 24,  2015, because of an Intellectual Property Rights issue. They cannot use the image of an apple or the word 'apple' to launch their product in Switzerland because of a trademark from 1985. The trademark currently belongs to William Longe, who owns watch brand, Leonard, that first filed the trademark application. He applied to the Swiss…
April 7, 2015 Trademarks 0Comment 781Views 1Like
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The image depicts the Madras HC.

Case Brief: Shamnad Basheer v. Union of India & Others

Article contributed by Heema Shirvaikar, Intern at BananaIP Counsels, 3rd-year Law Student at Symbiosis, Pune. Facts and brief history of case: In 2011, a Writ Petition was filed before the Madras High Court by Mr. Shamnad Basheer, seeking a Writ of Declaration, to declare the establishment of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, and the Patents Act, 1970 as violative of the basic structure of the Constitution of India. Shamnad Basheer, founder of…
March 11, 2015 Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks 0Comment 1633Views 1Like
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