Flipkart was again in the news recently. The e-commerce company sent a legal notice to a Hyderabad based blogger, Amit Bhawani, for the infringement of it trademark/logo and cyber squatting.
Seems like a garden variety case of trademark infringement right? Not quite. Mr Bhawani who is technology blogger with sites like ‘Phone Radar’ and ‘Android Advices’, also ran a website called ‘amazonvsflipkart.com’. As the name suggests the website hosted a ‘customer satisfaction poll’ pitting Flipkart and Amazon against each other,…
Recently the Internet domain registrar, GoDaddy had its Oscar-worthy moment, winning against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (‘Academy’ for brevity). The Academy had accused the Scottsdale, Arizona based company of cyber squatting.
Originally filed in 2010, the lawsuit was filed by the Academy, stating that GoDaddy was allowing its customers "to “park” their pages and share in the revenue" collected from the advertisements on the said pages. Further the Academy stated that the internet domain registrar had…
Delhi based TT Industries, established in 1955, has managed to restrain the famous German auto maker Audi from using the mark “TT” from selling sporting articles, accessories, bags, leather and faux leather goods, or toy cars in India.
TT Industries proprietor Rikab Chand Jain, filed a plaint after being aware of, Audi AG using the mark TT, to promote and sell their goods. TT Industries claims to deal in fashion and export textiles, agro-products, ready-made garments, textile piece goods, hosiery…
Recently the Times of India reported that IndiGo Airlines, one of the premier airline companies operating from India, with more than 100 flights daily, had landed in a trademark dispute with Tata Motors, another automobile giant and proprietors of the car TATA INDIGO. It is interesting to note that although Inter Globe (Prorpietors of IndiGo Airlines) and Tata Motors have been disputing for the past ten years, before the Indian Trademark Office, the news of the existence of such a dispute has…
Choosing the right name/business representation word, logo, device or any other form of business representation is generally the first asset created by an entrepreneur, Often, entrepreneurs finalize on a name or logo and develop strong emotional attachment to it without proper research. While it is important to be passionate about the business and its representation, every entrepreneur must take the following steps before finalizing on a business representation: Ensure that the name, logo or any other representation shortlisted is capable…
Google's announcement that it would be using the house mark “ALPHABET” for its holding company sparked off a series of debates about trademark implications of using the said word. While numerous companies operate under the name "ALPHABET" as a part of their name, the leader of these companies seems to be BMW. BMW's representative has stated that Alphabet, a fleet services company operated by BMW is an important part of its business, and that BMW is considering the issue at…
When Shakespeare wrote the famous line “what’s in a name” he definitely did not anticipate the redundancy of the statement in the context of intellectual property. It’s all about the name! There are numerous legal suits that have ensued over the copying of a name. And why shouldn’t they, there is tremendous amount of goodwill and reputation attached to a name.
Recently, Zara the Spanish clothing brand, sued a Chennai based restaurant for using its name. The restaurant was called…
This post gives trade mark statistics for the last decade.
Trademark applications are filed to register a trademark with a national or regional Intellectual Property (IP) office.A 2011 report showed that the five countries filing the most trademarks were China, USA, India, Brazil and South Korea. The statistics revealed a major shift in the preference of multinational brand owners towards emerging markets, evidenced by the change in the composition of the top 10 countries with the most number of published trademarks, from 2012 to 2013…
All of us at some point have watched and loved the film “Dirty Dancing”. The film is legendary for different reasons- the impeccable dance routines, the star-crossed lovers theme, Patrick Swayze and the dialogues, which are quoted, spoofed and now being used for ad campaigns. TD Ameritrade (‘Ameritrade’ for brevity) through its ad company Havas ran an advertisement of a man lifting a piggy bank over the tagline "Nobody puts your old 401(k) in the corner”, clearly spoofing the most…
Deadmau5 the Canadian progressive-house music producer who made his first tour of India last year had found himself in a trademark battle with the most loved mouse of all time, Mickey Mouse the well known cartoon character and the proud mascot of Disney. The root of Deadmau5 - real name Joel Zimmerman's troubles was literally sitting on his head, his iconic Mau5head which he regularly wears during all his performances around the world.
The Walt Disney Company Disney is fiercely protective of…