ASWAL ASSOCIATES- Intellectual Property Law firm India

In Re: Glaverbel S.A. vs Dave Rose & Ors., Justice A. K. Pathak, Delhi High Court rejects IA seeking amendment in claims as allowed in another suit without amending the present suit. The Court also relied on certified copy of Patent Office wherein the amendment sought in claim did not reflect. Here the Plaintiff vide an interlocutory Application 12535/2011 (under Section 151 of CPC)sought the amendment in present suit (CS (OS) no. 594/2007 of independent claim 1 as allowed in CS (OS) no. 593/2007. The originally allowed claim under Patent No. 190380 read as under A Mirror with no copper layer comprising: i) a vitreous substance, ii) at least one material selected from the group consisting of bismuth, chromium, gold, indium, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, titanium, vanadium and zinc at the surface of the said substrate, iii) a silver coating layer on the surface of the said substrate, said silver layer optionally comprising at least one material selected from...

Alcohol Advertising, packaging and Labelling requirements in India Author: Sudhir Kumar The minimum legal age to purchase liquor in India ranges from 18 years in some state to 25 years in others. Under Indian Law, there are restrictions on advertising of alcohol. With effect from September 8, 2008, the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Amendment Bill has completely prohibited cigarette and alcohol advertisements in India through television. Some states allow advertising through bill boards, hoarding etc. subject to many restrictions. Further another mode of liquor promotion in India is through surrogate advertising (brand name promotion) through advertising bottled waters, juices, soda etc. and promoting sports and other events. There is lot of hue and cry over surrogate advertising as major thrust in such advertising is on liquor brand promotion. The government controlled channels are very cautious while broadcasting any surrogate advertisement. The available mode of advertisemen...

As per Indian Designs Act, 2000, “design” means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to any article whether in two dimensional or three dimensional or in both forms, by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye; but does not include any mode or principal of construction or anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device and does not include any trademark, property mark and copyright as defined under the Indian laws. What Designs are Registrable Only those designs that are new or original are subject matter of registration in India. Designs which have been disclosed to the public anywhere in India or in any other country by publication in tangible form or by use or in any other way prior to the filing date, or where applicable, the priority date of the application for registration. Fu...

On May 31, 2011 Rwanda (RW) became the 144th PCT contracting state and PCT will enter into force on 31 august 2011. Earlier this month on May 3, 2011 Qatar (QA) became the 143rd PCT contracting state. PCT will enter into force on 3 August 2011. Thereafter, it would be possible to file pct application and designate any of 144 countries of choice for patent protection. There was not a new contracting state in 2010, though there was reification for the Kingdom in Europe, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. The Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist on 10 October 2010. As from that date, the PCT continues to apply to Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The PCT also continues to apply to the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba which, with effect from 10 October 2010, have become part of the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Europe. Last time there were new contracting state introduced in 2009, when Peru (June 6, 2009) and Thailand (December 24, 2009) became the 141 and 142 cont...

PH Kurian, IAS the Controller General of Patents, Trademarks, Design India has resigned last week from his post. Speculation is that he is returning back to Kerala Cadre and would be joining the Kerala Govt as principal Secretary. He was responsbile for bringing about transparency and accountability in the Patent, trademark and Design Office.

A writ was filed before the Delhi High Court by one aggrieved company (Haldiram) seeking inspection of certain trademark prosecution and opposition files. In the Course Petitioner was joined by several other parties who impleaded themselves. As TM Registry was not able to provide any convincing explanation for same the Court ordered an enquiry by the Secretary of the DIPP, under whose supervision and control the Patent, Trade Marks, Design and Geographical Indication of Goods offices comes (DIPP comes under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India) As per the affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court, DIPP stated that most of the files were misplaced when the Trade Marks Registry was decentralized from Mumbai to the other cities and files were moved from Mumbai to other offices. The Court was informed that a FIR had been filed with the police with respect of missing files sought by the petitioner for inspection and files would be reconstructed through existing records of the ...