Weekly Trademark Updates

Hero MotoCorp led by Pawan  Munjal gets permission for electric vehicles under the trademark Hero by the arbitration tribunal appointed by the Delhi High Court. The dispute was between two factions of the Munjal family group. Hero electric filed an application for an interim injunction against Hero MotoCorp for using HERO for the electric vehicles. The tribunal refused to grant an interim injunction as hero electric failed to prove a prima facie case and failed to establish a balance of convenience.

Parliament to introduce the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the monsoon session. The amendment is likely to simplify the procedure and make it more accessible for the people. In 2020, The Ministry of Commerce And Industry (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) amended the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Rules, 2002 which changed the rules related to the filing of the application for a GI.

The European Commission submitted a proposed regulation for the protection of G.I for craft and industrial products. These regulations are likely to increase the protection of CIPs. CIP (craft and industrial products) is a category of non-agricultural products which originate from a certain specific location and have a certain reputation and quality standards. To qualify for G.I protection as a CIP under the proposal following requirements must be complied with;

• Origination of the product must be from specific place or location

• The product must have quality standards and reputation

• At least one step of production of that product must be from that geographical location

Recently the Delhi High Court permanently restrained a cake shop from using names like Facecake, Facebake as it is infringing the rights of Facebook. The suit was filed by Meta, owner of the social media platform Facebook. The court restrained the Bengaluru-based cake shop as they were using the names Facecake and Facebake with the same font and same colour combination i.e. blue-on-white colour scheme which is commonly associated with the social media giant Facebook

In Snapdeal Private Limited V. GoDaddy Llc And Ors Delhi High Court observed that the registrar of domain names should create a mechanism for the trademark owners through which they can seek cancellation of any domain name on which they have an objection. It was also mentioned that in cases where cancellation is not permitted by the DNR (Domain Name Registrars) then the trademark owner can seek remedies from the courts against such a decision of non-cancellation by the DNR.

Authored by Lavanya Anand (Associate, BananaIP Counsels) and Bharat Sharma (Intern).

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This post is brought to you by BananaIP Counsels’ Trademarks and Copyright Attorneys

About BananaIP Counsels’ Trademarks and Copyright Attorneys

This Weekly Trademark Updates Bulletin is brought to you by the Trademarks and Copyright Division of BananaIP Counsels, a Top IP Firm in India. Led by Sanjeeth Hegde, BananaIP Counsels’ trademark and copyright attorneys are among the leading experts in the field. If you have any questions, or need any clarifications, please write to contact@bananaip.com with the subject: Weekly Trademark Update.
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