Trap Purchases and Manufactured Jurisdiction in Indian IP Litigation A study of SML Ltd. v. M/s Happy Agro Chemicals and the doctrine of trap transactions Introduction In intellectual property disputes, few procedural issues matter as much as deciding where a case can be filed. The choice of court often shapes the entire journey of the case — from how quickly interim orders are granted, to the attitude of the local lawyers, to the practical burden placed on a defendant who must fight far from home. Because the forum is so important, plaintiffs sometimes try to influence it. The most common method is the trap purchase : a test buy arranged by the plaintiff, where an investigator pretends to be a regular customer, purchases the allegedly infringing product, and keeps the invoice and packaging. Later, this evidence is used not only to show infringement but — more controversially — to argue that the cause of action arose within the territory of the chosen court. Tra...
Summary The Calcutta High Court has appointed Adv. Adarsh Ramanujan as amicus curiae to comprehensively address the registrability of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) under the Designs Act, 1970, following repeated rejections by the Indian Patent Office despite previous judicial guidance favoring GUI design protection. Background The Calcutta High Court appears determined to definitively resolve the contentious issue of GUI registrability under the Designs Act, 1970. In Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH v. The Controller of Patents (IPDAID/22/2024), the Court appointed Adv. Adarsh Ramanujan as amicus curiae to assist in determining questions concerning GUI design registration. This development follows the Court's earlier ruling in Ust Global (Singapore) Pte Ltd v. The Controller of Patents and Designs , where it indicated that GUIs are registrable as designs and remanded the matter to the Indian Patent Office (IPO) for reconsideration. However, upon re-examination, the C...