The presentations embedded in this post have been delivered by Dr. Kalyan Kankanala in his Patent Law course at National Law School of India University, Bangalore. The presentation on Intro to Patent Law gives an overview of patent philosophy. It covers social, economic and utilitarian rationales and gives an introduction to the tragedy of commons dimension. It also covers the patent life cycle, and public interest aspects of patent law. This presentation is an updated version of the 2013 presentation.Continue…
This post was first published on 16th October, 2014.
The chassis or the frame is part of a vehicle that is of paramount importance. It is like a skeleton that defines the shape of the vehicle and holds all the associated components of the vehicle together. There are different types of motorcycle frames such as single cradle, half duplex cradle, full duplex cradle, perimeter, beam, trellis etc., Though single cradle or single down-tube cradle frame is the simple and most commonly…
This post was first published on 10th October, 2014.
The Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents is a rule used in the Trademark Law which states that a foreign word and its equivalent English translation may be deemed confusingly similar. Under this doctrine, marks consisting of or including foreign words or terms from common, modern languages are translated into English to determine the extent to which it is generic, descriptive, the likelihood of confusion it may cause among other similar issues.
The Trademark Manual of…
This post was first published on 16th July, 2014.
To comprehend the Patent Process in its entirety, it is very essential to understand clearly the different types of patent applications. This post lucidly explains the different types of applications which can be filed before the Indian Patent Office.
Provisional Application
Non Provisional Application/Complete Application
Conventional Application
PCT - International Application
PCT - National Application
Application for Patent of Addition
Divisional Application
Provisional Application is a…
In the previous blog post, we discussed Section 9(1) which laid down a few absolute grounds for refusal of registration of trademarks.
Today, we’ll explain in detail, Section 9(2) which states:
"A mark shall not be registered as a trademark if:
It is of such nature as to deceive the public or cause confusion;
It contains or comprises any matter likely to hurt the religious susceptibilities of any class or section of the citizens…
As discussed in our previous post, for determining the well knownness of a trademark, the claimant of the well knownness is required to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the mark enjoys high reputation among a substantial segment of consumers, with respect to the goods and/or services to which said mark is applied. In order to conceptualize the principle behind the well knownness of a trademark, it is important to understand the legal interpretations of the terms ‘substantial segment of consumers’…
In continuation to our previous post on Well Known marks, in this post we will be discussing the factors that should be taken into consideration while determining the well knownness of a mark.
Section 11(6) and Section 11(7) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 discusses the factors that the Registrar of Trademarks shall take into account while determining the well knownness of a trademark. Section 11(6) provides specific factors for assessing well knownness of a trademark, and Section 11(7) provides specific…
The Copyright Amendment brought in a few important changes with respect to mode of assignment of works. Not exercising due care with these provisions might result in reversion of rights. Thankfully, some of these changes were all encompassing and not limited only to authors or owners of works for films.
Relevant provisions of Section 19 read as follows:
"19. Mode of assignment. ...
(4) Where the assignee does not exercise the rights assigned to him under any of the other…
One of the primary purposes of the Copyright Amendment in 2012 was to ensure that authors get their well deserved consideration. The focus was primarily on authors, who create works for feature films. Other authors, unfortunately, received little or no attention. After making sure that producers do not take away ownership rights by signing 'work for hire' engagements, the amendment made changes to provisions with respect to assignment in Section 18.
The first provision in Section 18, the subject of…
This post was first published on June 25th, 2014.
We reviewed the existing scenario in the entertainment industry with respect to the protection of ideas, in my previous post - how to protect ideas. Before we move on to discuss the tool that can be used to protect original ideas/concepts that are not expressed in a tangible form, let us take a look at the practices followed in the entertainment industry by both the generator and the receiver of ideas.…