Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

The featured image depicts the word sony written in big bold letters with it's tagline (make, believe) below it. The post is about the release of a movie titled "emoji"by Sony and a possible trademark dispute over it. To know more. please click here.

Sony’s use of Emoji: A possible legal dispute

Sony might have to settle a possible trademark as well as copyright dispute with Marco Husges, before it can release an animated film titled “The Emoji ”. Marco Husges, is a game developer and emoji creator who has previously worked on the MMO Shadowbane, Starbreeze Studio’s Enclave and had filed for commercial trademark of the word "emoji" back in 2013. He claims to have trademark merchandising rights over 3000 emojis. The rights over the emoji shouldn’t be confused…

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Disney and Dalian Engage in Comic Wars

A conflict for the protection of intellectual property right arose recently in China when a Chinese based Infrastructure Company, Wanda Company diversified its business and entered in to a theme based park. It is interesting to note how the conflict arose in this case. The facts are as follows: on the inauguration of the theme park of Wanda Group on 28th May 2016,  few people who were alleged to be workers of the park, were seen clad in Captain America,…

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The featured image shows the top view of the cap of a coca cola bottle. The post is about the registration of "zero" as a trademark by Coca Cola. To know more, please click here.

‘Coca Cola’ Tastes the Feeling of ‘Zero’

After thirteen years of long battle, Coca-Cola Company has finally  been granted registration for the trademark “zero’’ for its zero-calorie drinks, namely Coca-Cola Zero, Sprite Zero and Powerade Zero by the US trademark authorities. The company had been trying to register the trademark “zero” in US since 2003. However, Dr Pepper who sells a diet soda, called Diet Rite Pure Zero, challenged this effort by Coca-Cola in the year 2007 for registration of the word “zero”.  Dr.Pepper argued that “zero”…

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The featured image depicts a peice of paper with the word trademark highlighted and in bold along with other words which are there in the background. this posts relates to trademark objectives enshrined in the IPR policy 2016. to know more click here.

National IPR Policy: Trademark Related Objectives

India approved its first ever Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy on 13th May 2016 with a vision to stimulate creativity and innovation and to promote advancement in science and technology, art and culture, traditional knowledge and biodiversity resources. The policy lays out seven broad objectives and they are as follows: Awareness: outreach and promotion; Generation of IPRs; Legal and legislative framework; Administration and management; Commercialization of IPR; Enforcement…

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The featured image shows the first page of the National IPR Policy document. To read more about the National IPR Policy, click here

NIPR Policy – Action points on Geographical Indications, Trademarks and Designs

The National IPR Policy for India, released on 13th May 2016 outlines seven broad objectives laid down by the policy, as discussed in the earlier posts accessible here and here. This post will focus on the aspects of Geographical Indications, Designs and Trademarks dealt by the new IPR Policy. The policy highlights the lack awareness of IP benefits and rights among possible IPR generators and holders. The Policy addresses the concern that Geographical Indications (GIs) needs to be promoted especially…

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The featured image shows the picture of the generic drug Temazepam. This post is about the new EU trademark law that is causing concern for India. To read more click here.

EU Trademark law threatens Indian Generic Export Market

  The European Parliament and The Council of The European Union recently passed the Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 . The legislation concerns an amendment to the European Union trademark law. The new legislation has India worried as it enlists stringent enforcement provisions that allow customs officials to seize foreign consignments en route to third countries if they contain items with brand names or logos similar to those registered as trademarks in the 28-member nations of the EU block. The specific provisions that…

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The featured image shows the like button used by facebook. This post is about two recent trademark judgments passed by the courts of china. To read more click here.

China Court Likes Facebook and Dislikes Apple.

You win some, you lose some!! China passed two judgments last week, with respect to trademark involving two of the most famous brands- “iPhone” and “Facebook”. The judgments are very surprising because as we all know that Facebook though blocked in China, was allowed the trademark protection. However, iPhone despite being popular and sold in China lost the trademark battle. The iPhone imbroglio: Xintong Tiandi, a Chinese manufacturer of luxury leather goods has been selling handbags, mobile phone…

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IP for Start ups HyderabadCII

IP for Start-ups : A Presentation by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at CII Hyderabad

The following presentation was delivered by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at the one day Seminar on ‘IPR Management for Startups in Electronics and ICT Sectors’ on 6th May 2016, in Hyderabad, organized by Andhra Pradesh Technology Development & Promotion Centre (APTDC) of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY). Participants of the seminar included Budding Entrepreneurs, Managers/Executives in Startups and Professionals in various functional areas of Startups such as Research & Development, Marketing,…

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Louis Vuitton – Food versus Fashion…

Louis Vuitton is one of the world’s largest fashion brands whose trademark LV is famous across the globe. In a recent event, the fashion brand filed a case against “Louis Vuitton Dak” – a South Korean Fried Chicken Restaurant for trademark infringement on the grounds of confusing similarity in the trademarks. According to the Korean Times - the logo of the chicken restaurant bears a close resemblance to that of original luxury brand - Louis Vuitton’s logo. In September 2015…

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The image is of numbers in a downward spiral . The post is about numerals as trademarks. to read more please visit.

Likelihood of Confusion: Numerals as Trade Marks

  In this post we will be analyzing whether a numeral Trade mark can be deceptively similar to another mark consisting of different numerals. This issue has recently been dealt with by the Delhi High Court in the case Mona Aggarwal & Anr vs. Glossy & Paints Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. The brief facts of this case are that, the Plaintiff i.e. Glossy Colour Paint Pvt. Ltd is said to have adopted and used over the mark "1001" since 1946. The…

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