India

cosmetic trademarks, Distinctiveness, Exhaustion of rights, Grey online sales, India, Infringement, INTA

, (Khaitan & Co.)/ /1 Comment

The Delhi High Court recently in the case of Coty Germany GmBH v. Xeryus Retail Private Limited (CS(COMM) 1298/2018 & I.A. 8603/2023) permanently restrained two websites, namely  perfumery.co.in and unboxed.in, from selling perfume tester bottles bearing the “Calvin Klein” or “cK” trademarks and imposed INR 1,00,000 (approx. USD 1,200) to be paid to Coty Germany GmBH…

India, Infringement

, (Khaitan & Co.)/ /Leave a comment

Any entity operating a fantasy sports platform would wish to display names of players and teams, for ease of identification and to make the platform as realistic as possible. Player or team names, however, where they act as source identifiers, would fall within the definition of a trademark, and their proprietors could enforce their rights…

Case law, India, Infringement

(Intellectual Property Lawyer)/ /2 Comments

It is not common that local Indian companies sue multinationals for infringement in India – and win. However, recently, just that happened: Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd. (“Parle ”) sued multinational retail giant Walmart India Pvt. Ltd. and Ors. (“Walmart India”) at the Bombay High Court for violating its trademark/trade-dress when it launched a deceptively similar…

Case law, India

(PhD student at University of Antwerp) and (Advocate (Dispute Resolution) practicing in New Delhi and a graduate of the University of Cambridge)/ /3 Comments

On 11th September 2020, the European Commission (EC) published India’s Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) application for ‘Basmati’ under EU Regulation No. 1151/2012 (Regulation). While the origin of Basmati has been contested within India itself, there is opposition by other countries in the Indian subcontinent. Here we identify two critical issues that lead to wider debates…

Case law, India

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Are e-commerce websites allowed to sell products of companies engaged in direct selling? The Delhi High Court of India, in its judgment of 8 July 2019, here, held platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, 1MG and Healthkart guilty of tortious interference with the contractual relationship of the plaintiffs with their direct sellers. The court applied…

Case law, India, Infringement

(West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent decision[1] the Calcutta High Court (“Court”) upheld the use of the word ‘Darjeeling’ for the 5-star hotel lounge operated by ITC Limited (“ITC”). The ‘Darjeeling lounge’ was introduced by ITC in January 2003. The plaintiff Tea Board, a state agency established to promote cultivation and trade of tea, held registrations for ‘Darjeeling’…

Distinctiveness, India, Infringement

(Nirma University)/ /Leave a comment

In India, so-called translation cases, where a later mark is (or is alleged to be) a mere translation of an earlier mark leading to confusion resulting from conceptual similarity, are dealt with under the concept of “deceptive similarity”. While earlier decisions seemed to favour a broad interpretation of this concept, the judgment of the Delhi…

Domain name, India, Trademark

( O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School)/ /Leave a comment

On the 24th of August, 2017, the Indian Supreme Court handed down an important decision concerning image and personality rights. In fact, it deemed the right to privacy as a fundamental right. It has, however, left some important questions open, in particular, the definition of personality rights giving rise to such right to privacy. Personality…