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Trap Purchases and Manufactured Jurisdiction in Indian IP Litigation

  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...
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Delhi HC on Crocs v. Bata Shaping Cost Awards in IP Disputes

Executive Summary On 2nd July 2026, the Delhi High Court awarded Bata India Ltd. actual litigation costs of Rs. 24,63,400 against Crocs Inc. USA, bringing the twelve-year design infringement suit to a close after the underlying design registration was cancelled by the Deputy Controller of Patents & Designs (while Crocs' composite suits on the shape trademark and passing off remain pending) . The order is a useful case study for foreign rights-holders and their Indian counsel on three fronts: (i)                       the consequences of pursuing a design suit where validity is later successfully challenged; (ii)                     how Indian commercial courts now compute and award actual, realistic costs rather than nominal or symbolic amounts; and (iii)    ...
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China Trademark Law 2026 Revision: Key Changes Every Brand Owner Must Know

Introduction China has completed the most consequential rewrite of its Trademark Law in over a decade. On June 26, 2026, the 23rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourteenth National People's Congress adopted a comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China — the fifth amendment since the law was first enacted in 1982, and the first substantive overhaul since the narrow 2019 revision. The revised law, comprising 87 articles across nine chapters (up from 73 articles in eight chapters under the outgoing law), will enter into force on January 1, 2027. Trademarks registered before that date remain valid. For brand owners, in-house counsel, and IP practitioners with China exposure, this is not a routine update. The revision touches registration standards, opposition timelines, well-known mark protection, damages calculations, and — perhaps most significantly — the treatment of bad-faith and speculative filings that have long troubled foreig...
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Digital Storefronts Define Trademark Jurisdiction, Rules Delhi HC

Rukhmani Keshwani v. Raju Agarbatti Works & Anr. , FAO (COMM) 99/2024 (Delhi High Court, Division Bench, decided 01.07.2026) Why This Case Matters For any business that sells through a website, a marketplace listing, or a platform like IndiaMart, Amazon, or Etsy, this ruling answers a question that keeps coming up in Indian IP litigation: can you be sued for trademark or copyright infringement in a city where you have no office, no warehouse, and no employee — simply because your goods are listed online and reachable there? The Delhi High Court's answer, reaffirming and extending its own recent line of authority, is yes — provided the online listing shows purposeful commercial targeting , not mere passive accessibility. Actual completed sales are not required. This has direct consequences for how foreign and domestic manufacturers, franchisors, and e-commerce sellers should think about litigation risk exposure across Indian jurisdictions. The Dispute in Brief R...
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The Jurisdiction Battle in Trademark Rectification: How Two Delhi High Court Rulings Exposed a Post-IPAB Fault Line

  Introduction When the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 abolished the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), it did more than shut down a specialised forum — it quietly reopened a question the trademark statute had never clearly answered: which High Court can hear a rectification or cancellation petition when the mark was registered somewhere else entirely? For decades, this question had a settled, almost mechanical answer. Under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958, "High Court" was expressly defined by reference to the Trade Marks Registry's territorial reach, and the IPAB later organised its own benches around the same logic. But the Trade Marks Act, 1999 — the statute now in force — dropped that definition. For years, this omission went unnoticed because the IPAB's own administrative structure papered over the gap. Its abolition in 2021 removed that scaffolding, and the underlying ambiguity surfaced almost immediately, generating conflicting arguments ...
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