Trademarks Archives

McDonald’s wins and is “lovin’ it”

McDonald's recently won favour with the EU Office in a case of opposition which it filed against Supermac’s trademark application in the European Union, to prevent Supermac from registering its brandname as a trade mark in EU. Supermac had planned a major expansion in the UK, the EU and Australia. Supermac is an Irish origin fast food company started by Pat McDonagh, in 1978. The Mighty Mac double burger and the Chicken Snack Box has been popularised since then with revenues…

February 2, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1596Views 0Like

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The featured image is of the trademark symbols- tm, r . The post is abouT change in the name of Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) to European Union Intellectual Property Office. please click here to read more.

The First Amendment strikes again

The Slants, an Asian-American rock band, founded by Simon Tam, had applied for the registration of their band name as a trademark. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) however, refused to grant THE SLANTS trademark registration under §2(a), which bars registration for marks “[c]onsist[ing] of or compris[ing] … matter which may disparage … persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.” It stated that the mark was denied registration for being…

January 5, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 767Views 0Like

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The Custom image reads "Comments on the Draft Trademark Rules, 2015". The post is about the Comments and suggestion submitted to the DIPP on the new proposed TM rules. To read more click here.

Comments and Suggestions on the Draft Trademark Rules, 2015

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion ("DIPP") issued a notification on November 19th, 2015 publishing the draft Trademark (Amendment) Rules, 2015 ("Draft Rules") seeking to amend the Trademark Rules, 2002 ("Trademark Rules"). The proposed Draft Rules seeks to simplify the complex registration process. The objective of the Draft Rules is to create a more organised system of filing applications which will result in the efficient processing of applications. In light of this, it…

December 17, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 876Views 0Like

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World’s Best IP Blogs – Likelihood of Confusion

Dear readers, we hope you are enjoying this series on the World’s Best IP blogs. The blog that makes it to our list of “Worlds Best IP blogs” today is called - Likelihood of Confusion. In legal terminology Likelihood of Confusion (or Confusing Similarity) is the legal standard that determines whether or not trademark infringement has occurred. The specific standard itself is defined by a vast body of law and varies jurisdiction by jurisdiction. This blog was launched by Ron…

December 15, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 685Views 0Like

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The featured image is of lord Ram his wife Sita, the devotee Hanuman and Rama's three brothers (Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna). The post is about a trademark case involving a religious trademark. To read more click here.

Don’t take the God’s name in vain

“You cannot take ‘advantage’ of me”, Sita must’ve said to Ravan. And not surprisingly at all, the Honourable Supreme Court of India feels strongly for the sentiment. As was seen on the 27th of October, 2015 when the division bench comprising of J.Gogoi and J.Agrawal observed that using images of Gods and Goddesses as a part of a logo/label would be “taking advantage of the Gods and Goddesses” which wouldn’t be permitted. The SC also ruled that names of holy…

December 11, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1049Views 0Like

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Intellectual Property and Licensing- A presentation by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at IIM-B

This presentation was delivered by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala to PGP-Enterprise Management students at IIM-Bangalore, as a part of their Business Law curriculum. The presentation entitles Intellectual property and Licensing covered the following topics- Idea- What is an idea, example, whether all ideas can be protected. Patent- What is a patent, term of a patent. Protection Strategy Spectrum Licensing Copyright- What is copyright, idea/ expression dichotomy, term of copyright. Protection with respect to copyright…

November 27, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Industrial Designs, Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing, Trademarks 0Comment 664Views 1Like

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Pidilite Industries vs. Vilas Nemichand Jain.

This post discusses a recent case update with regard to prior use of a descriptive trademark. The case presents an interesting aspect of trademark law, i.e., when claiming for passing off action of a descriptive trademark, the Plaintiff must provide convincing evidence to establish the prior use and the secondary meaning which has been acquired for the trademark. The case described herein was filed on 26th July 2010 before the High Court of Bombay, by two companies namely, Pidilite Industries Limited…

November 24, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1001Views 0Like

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The Indian Express case

In October this year, the Bombay High Court passed its decision in the case between The Indian Express Limited and Chandran Prakash Shivhare, the publisher and distributor of a journal called "Indian Express" filed before the Bombay High Court in the year 2010, to seek an injunction against the Defendant, and to restrain them from using the title ‘Indian Express’. The crux of this case was whether a registered trademark could be infringed by the use of the identical mark which had…

November 24, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1016Views 0Like

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Draft Trademark (Amendment) Rules, 2015: Yay or Nay?

On 19th November, 2015 Draft Trademark (Amendment) Rules, 2015 were issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI). The Rules are intended to amend the current Trademark Rules, 2002 and have proposed a complete revamping of the same. The rules propose the trademark filing fee to be doubled, which means a hundred percent hike in official charges. The Digital India initiative has gone a step further, by discouraging physical filing of Trade Mark applications. The applicants will be required…

November 24, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 670Views 0Like

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Trademark Infringement on E-Commerce platforms: Google AdWord case

Google is the world’s most famous search engine. Google's mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” The major portion of Google's profit is through its highly successful program AdWords, which provides advertisers advertising space for related searches. AdWords is a program that helps companies to advertise and promote their products or services on Google’s websites. The program works by providing highly relevant ads and suggestions to third party users when they enter keywords…