This Infringement and Invalidity proceeding is part of the\u00a0Patent Law and Practice Program being taught by the BananaIP Team to the\u00a0B.tech-LLB Students of\u00a0 UPES School of Law, Dehradun. Readers may use the content herein with appropriate attribution to the author.<\/p>\n
The students were divided into two groups, one group arguing in favor of ToyJoy and the other arguing in favor of Happy Chocs. While the representatives for ToyJoy were asked to\u00a0 initiate the suit for infringement against Happy Chocs, the\u00a0representatives for Happy Chocs were asked to defend their client and initiate an invalidity proceeding against ToyJoy’s patent.<\/p>\n
The problem reads as follows:
\nToyJoy is a leading chocolate company headquartered at Paris, France, that specializes in making products that include combinations of chocolates and toys. ToyJoy is the leader in such products, and its\u00a0 products are very popular among kids across the world. ToyJoy has a ten member R and D team that focuses on new product research and development around chocolate and toy combinations. On 14th March, 2009, the company files a patent application with respect to edible chocolate toys.<\/p>\n
The first claim of the patent reads as follows:<\/p>\n
“What is claimed is:<\/p>\n
ToyJoy’s patent application is granted in several countries including India, USA, France, Germany, China and Japan by 2014. In\u00a0 2013, ToyJoy launches\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0 patented product in India under the brand “KIDJOY.” The product is an instant success among kids, and soom becomes ToyJoy’s best selling product in India.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0 2016, a group of three\u00a0 executive PGP graduates from IIM, Bangalore, start a chocolate company called ‘Happy Chocs.’ The company’s business model is to source home made chocolates from different\u00a0 hill stations in the country, package them professionally, and sell them under the company’s brand. One among the three founders of Happy Chocs, Dr. Sharanya Vibha, is an ex-employee in the R and D team of ToyJoy. Using her experience at ToyJoy, Dr. Sharanya Vibha develops a\u00a0 unique series of\u00a0 products, which combine\u00a0 home made chocolates with traditional handicrafts made in\u00a0 the region. She brands the product line as ‘ChocCraft.’<\/p>\n
ChocCraft chocolates include a small handicraft from the region where the chocolates are made, to which\u00a0 different\u00a0 types of chocolates from the area are attached by creative means. The handicrafts can be retained by customers after eating up the attached chocolates. Among others, ChocCraft’s handicrafts include hand made animals, such as elephants, peacocks, humans, plants, etc. to which chocolates are appended as ornaments, clothes, or specially designed decorations. The products are packaged with traditional\u00a0 materials\u00a0 and writings about\u00a0 the art forms.<\/p>\n
Happy Chocs’\u00a0 ChocCraft\u00a0 is marketed as traditional, home made chocolates reflecting Indian art and culture. All advertisements of\u00a0 ChocCraft are\u00a0\u00a0 designed around\u00a0\u00a0 support and encouragement of traditional arts, crafts and knowledge. The tag line of the brand is: Chocolates for True\u00a0 Indians. Happy Chocs is unable to\u00a0 place its chocolates in physical stores, but the company’s products, especially, ChocCraft products, sell very well on online stores. Within six months, Happy Chocs’ products get into the top five\u00a0 best selling\u00a0 chocolate products on Amazon and Flipkart.<\/p>\n
Noticing the success of ChocCraft, ToyJoy sends a legal notice alleging patent infringement to Happy Chocs. The notice asks Happy Chocs to stop selling ChocCraft chocolates within two weeks, but Dr. Sharanya Vibha\u00a0 and other founders ignore the notice deeming\u00a0 it as a frivolous attempt to stop progress of Happy Chocs. Aggrieved, ToyJoy sues Happy Chocs for patent infringement.<\/p>\n
About Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala<\/strong> This post describes a mock patent infringement and invalidity proceeding conducted by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at UPES School of Law. It explores a simulated dispute between two chocolate companies, offering insights into the practical application of Indian patent law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[8822,1228,163,8823,8821,16,2847,2845],"class_list":["post-40922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-patents","tag-chocolate-industry","tag-dr-kalyan-kankanala","tag-indian-patent-law","tag-ip-education","tag-mock-proceedings","tag-patent-infringement-2","tag-patent-invalidity","tag-upes-school-of-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136348,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40922\/revisions\/136348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDr. Kalyan C. Kankanala manages the largest new age Intellectual Property Firm, BananaIP Counsels, headquartered at Bangalore, India. In addition to helping clients maximize business value from intellectual assets, Dr. Kalyan also consults for United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and teaches at premier institutions such as National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B).
\nProfessional URL: https:\/<\/a>
\nIP News Centre:\u00a0https:\/ip-news-center\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"