We’ve got some sad news for our FC Barcelona fans. The General Court of the European Union recently ruled against the football club FC Barcelona and in favour of an American fashion company named Kule, affirming a previous decision, that the football club had failed to prove the genuine use of the mark ‘Cule’.
For all our non-football fans, ‘Cule’ means a fan or supporter of the FC Barcelona. The issue first came up in 2011, when Kule had…
Cadila Healthcare is not only a popular name in the pharma industry but also in trademark circle. The people in the trademark fraternity are well aware about the landmark judgment involving Cadila Healthcare, which established the criteria for trade mark passing off action.
Last week, the Madras High Court passed an order, i.e. a permanent injunction against Cadila Healthcare, refraining the company from using any similar trademark, as that of "VENIZ " which belongs to Sun Pharmaceuticals.
Sun Pharmaceuticals had adopted the…
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…
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,…
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”…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…