A meeting with IP Stakeholders was held by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks to discuss the steps taken by the IPO for improving processes within the IPO & the impact these steps have made.
The IPO said that it had taken the following steps to streamline the patent process:
Updating of the Application Numbering System – This step was taken to bring the Indian patent application numbering system at par with the international…
Subject matter eligibility is one of the most rapidly evolving issues in Patent Law. The US Courts have avoided defining what qualifies as an abstract idea. Most of the software related inventions are being considered patent ineligible based on the Alice case.
The Alice case gave us a two-part analysis for determining whether software claims are eligible for patenting. First step in the analysis is to “determine whether claims at issue are directed to one of those patent ineligible concepts”. If the…
Well, needless to say, Intellectual Property Law is such an area of law which is somewhat alien to a large section of public. What prompted me to write this article are the constant queries that I receive from people around me, being an Intellectual Property Attorney. Through the medium of this article, I would like to draw the attention of readers towards various misconceptions about Intellectual Property Law. And mind you, there are a lot. I take this opportunity to…
Are IP attorneys expected to behave in a particular way? Always formal, poker faced and polished? Why are we driven by these unsaid, yet strictly imposed, diligently followed and unbelievably fettered, so called "professional etiquette." I feel suffocated and wrongfully restrained by these norms, and wonder if all attorneys have to live with them for a life time.
Shedding some of those chains, I am sharing one of my more light-hearted experiences as a patent attorney. I hope you will enjoy it.…
Instagram, the Facebook-owned photosharing app has opposed tech giant Microsoft over the usage of the trademark suffix ‘gram’ that Microsoft intends to use for its products. Instagram has endeavoured to block Microsoft from having ‘Actiongram’ federally registered as a trademark owing to the use of the suffix ‘gram’.
According to Instagram’s Notice of Opposition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) the company is convinced that it “will be damaged by the registration of the Actiongram mark,” as Microsoft’s…
Hello Readers!! There has been a lot that has been brewing over the past few weeks with respect to Patents. We have decided to recapitulate the patent news which have recently hit the headlines in our segment, Weekly Trends. Let us take a quick look at what happened in the past weeks, with this weekly update.
Dyson is coming to India!
Dyson Ltd. a well-established UK-based Technology company will be entering India with its wide range of patented products next year…
Rubik’s Cube is the most renowned and an iconic 3-D combinatorial puzzle of all time. This multi-coloured puzzle was invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. This puzzle is the bestselling toy of all time with over 350 million Rubik’s cubes having been sold worldwide. Along with that it has won “Toy of the Year” in 1980 and 1981 and has combined total of over 43 quintillion different possible configurations to solve it.
On 10…
Google and its subsidiary YouTube were caught in a crossfire in India when Lebara Foundation a non-profit philanthropic institution supporting communities to address the welfare of vulnerable and displaced children, filed a defamation suit over an allegedly defamatory video posted by an uploader named Marupakkam Seithigal on YouTube. A Single bench (Justice MM Sundresh,) of the Madras High Court allowed Lebara’s applications seeking the IP address of those responsible for uploading a ‘defamatory’ video. The court said “If a person…
The presidential elections in the United States of America have now concluded with Republican Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump winning a closely contested election.
There has been a lot of speculation about IP laws and its progress under Trump’s term, but unfortunately there hasn’t been much information released in his agenda. Although Trump has substantial personal experience protecting and enforcing his own trademarks, including attempts to protect more controversial marks such as 'you're fired.'
One of the recent cases being,…
Facts
IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society) has its grievance against the broadcasters of Private FM Radio Channels and Event Organizers for paying royalties to only the owners in copyright of the sound recording but not to the authors of the lyrical or musical scores. The Single bench of the Delhi High Court Justice S.Ravindra Bhat ruled in favor of the radio broadcasting channels and IPRS then appealed to the Supreme Court, which delivered its judgement in September.
Question of Law
The question…