Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

Featured image is of EDM D.J. Joel Zimmerman a.k.a. DeadMau5 performing as the post is about his famous Mau5 ears and the trademark dispute with Disney. To read the post click here.

Disney finally dances to Deadmau5’s tune

Deadmau5   the Canadian progressive-house music producer who made his first tour of India last year had found himself in a trademark battle with the most loved mouse of all time, Mickey Mouse the well known cartoon character and the proud mascot of Disney.  The root of Deadmau5 - real name Joel Zimmerman's troubles was literally sitting on his head, his iconic Mau5head which he regularly wears during all his performances around the world. The Walt Disney Company Disney is fiercely  protective of…

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youtube

YouTube ordered to take down copyright infringing material

On July 1, 2015, Google owned video-sharing website YouTube won a legal battle against German performing rights organization GEMA in a German regional court. GEMA had claimed that Youtube should be liable to pay each time a video of an artist, represented by GEMA is viewed. GEMA represents several composers, lyricists, music publishers as its members in Germany and collects their royalty fees. This is not the first time that GEMA has engaged in a legal feud with YouTube. Even…

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The featured image is of the copyright logo on a bomb, as the post is about assignment of copyright. To read the post click here.

Padmini and ors.Vs.Raj Television Network Limited

Case title Padmini and ors.Vs.Raj Television Network Limited Citation Original Application No. 763 of 2013 in C.S. No. 686 of 2013 (Decided On: 13.04.2015) Facts The plaintiffs are the legal heirs of R Venkatraman, who produced the Tamil film ‘Ninaithale Inikkum’ in the year 1979, under the ‘Premalaya’ banner. In 1981 Mr Venkatraman assigned the copyright in the negatives, of both picture and sound, of the said film to ‘Kumar Pictures’, by way of an assignment deed, for a period of…

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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…

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This image depicts children singing the happy birthday song. This image is relevant becasue this post talks about the copyright over the tune of the song "Happy birthday to you". Click on the image to view full post.

Happy Birthday sue You; Happy Birthday sue You!

There’s no one who hasn’t awkwardly stood around their birthday cake while people sing "Happy Birthday to You". It’s the world’s most famous song, sung to millions each year. And this six-word set of lyrics with a simple melody is protected by copyright. In 1868, two Hill sisters from Kentucky composed a song called "Good Morning to All" (now known as the tune of "Happy Birthday"), which went like: Good morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning, dear…

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The image depicts the Logo of Apple Inc. The image is relevant as the post is about Apple losing to Smartflash. Click on the image for full description.

Smartflash takes a $ 532.9 Mn worth bite of Apple

Apple, known for suing other high profile companies, gets a taste of its own medicine. Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay US$ 532.9 Mn after a federal jury in Texas found that its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by patent licensing firm, Smartflash LLC. To market and commoditize his patents, Patrick Racz, in the early 2000s established Smartflash. As a non-practicing entity, the firm operates solely through patent licensing and litigation. Smartflash, a Texas-based patent licensing company, sued Apple…

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This image depicts the Microsoft logo outside the Microsoft office. This post is about a recent patent win that Microsoft had. Click on the image to read the full post.

InterDigital Loses Patent Infringement Suits against Microsoft & ZTE

In a recent patent battle, InterDigital, the patent licensing company, lost its appeal to revive patent infringement suits against Microsoft and ZTE’s phone unit (previously NOKIA). InterDigital had been fighting with Nokia over royalties for over 7 years before Microsoft inherited the fight when it purchased Nokia’s mobile device business. After the ruling, InterDigital’s share price came down by 3.4% to US$ 49.14. InterDigital had filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and ZTE claiming they had infringed on 5 of its mobile phone technology…

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This image depicts the IBM building. IBM has recently filed a patent infringement suit against Priceline. Click on the image to read the full post.

IBM sues Priceline and subsidiaries for Patent Infringement

International Business Machine Corp. (IBM) has filed a lawsuit against online travel leader, Priceline and its associated websites for infringing on 5 of IBM’s patents to build its own business model. IBM has made allegations that Priceline has constantly refused to discuss a license to the patented inventions of IBM and should pay royalties on the billions of dollars of revenue it generated using them. Priceline declined to comment on the issue. Two of the patents Priceline allegedly infringed on are…

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This image depicts the Nokia office building. The Microsoft Nokia deal has been given partial approval. Click on the image to read the full post.

FTC Gives Conditional Approval to the Microsoft-Nokia Deal

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC), South Korea's antitrust authority, conditionally approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset business earlier this month. The conditions attached to the merger state that Microsoft will put a ceiling on the royalties paid by major Korean handset manufacturers like Samsung and LG for Nokia patents.  The agreement between Microsoft and Nokia will allow Microsoft to directly manufacture handsets and tablets based on its broad patent portfolio. Microsoft had submitted its request for the acquisition of Nokia’s…

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This image depicts the Google logo with a magnifying glass over it. The post is about the recent debate that has been sparked as Google made the announcement that it would be using the house mark “ ALPHABET” for its holding company . Click on the image to read the full post.

Google-Twitter License Deal: Display Tweets in Search Results

Google has struck a deal with Twitter to acquire full access of the tweets and their indexing in its search results on a real time basis. Although details of the deal have not been disclosed or confirmed by either party, Google has allegedly entered into a data licensing revenue agreement, and will shell out the money to the tune of US$41 million for the tweets. Google had been indexing tweets till 2011, before the launch of Google+, its social networking site…

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