The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has admitted on affidavit before Delhi High Court that TM Registry has lost whopping 44,000 files relating to trademarks

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 trademark, (i.e. TM journals/ electronic database).

YAHOO!’S YODEL FIRST SOUND MARK GRANTED IN INDIA

Yahoo!’s yodel became the first sound mark to be granted by Indian Trade Marks Registry. As per the definition of mark under the Indian Trademark Act, a ‘Mark’ includes a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name (including abbreviations), signature, word, letter, numerals, shape of goods, packaging or combination of colors and any combination thereof. As per the provision of the Indian Trade marks Act a ‘Trademark’ means a mark capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of others. It also denotes the origin of goods and carries goodwill of the business in respect of which it is used.Further, the Indian Act requires that trademark must be distinctive (adapted to distinguish the goods/services of the applicant from that of others) and must not deceptive.The Trademarks Registry granted registration to Yahoo!’ yodel on August 18, 2008. The sound mark can be registered in India as they are capable of being represented graphically i.e. in the form of musical notes thus satisfying the requirement of the Indian Trade Marks Act. As per the Indian Trade Marks Act one of the essential and inherent requirement of a trade mark is that it should be capable of being represented graphically and must be able to distinguish the good or services in respect of which it is employed from that of others.Smell marks are still not registered in India as it cannot be represented graphically like musical notes although they satisfy other requirements of the Indian Trade Marks Act.