Section

Non fungible tokens (NFTs) – What is the brouhaha all about?

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs as they are popularly known, have taken the world by storm – so much so that Collins Dictionary picked NFT as the word of the year in 2021. It defines a NFT as “a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain tha...

How skilled is a “Person Skilled In The Art” supposed to be?

Patent laws of various jurisdictions stipulate inventive step as one of the requirements for patentability. The step has been stipulated so that a trivial and insignificant variation, which a person may deduce as an obvious consequence of the prior a...

Third-party observations in industrial designs

Assessing genuine use and distinctive character of a registered trademark in Singapore

The Singapore trademark law provides for two ways through which a party may seek to challenge a third party’s mark that has already been registered, namely: revocation and invalidation. In relation to revocation, Section 22(1) of the Trade Marks Ac...

Post-grant amendments: Flexibility or certainty?

Amendment of patent claims is one of the most critical and strategic decisions that needs to be made during the lifetime of a patent. Both pre- and post-grant amendments can be of strategic importance in determining the economic value of the patent....

Routine optimization and the patentability hitch

Innovative activity is not a onetime affair. Many innovations rely on the activities involving the manipulation of variables of known compounds, formulations or combinations, and the optimization of process variables such as proportions

Well-known trademarks in India

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises. Trademarks are protected by intellectual property rights.” Wit...

The dominancy test and likelihood of confusion

The KOLIN mark has been the subject of two landmark decisions in the Philippines, including the recent one promulgated on February 9, 2021, G.R. No. 228165, uploaded on the Supreme Court website on June 15, 2021, docketed as Kolin Electonics Co., Ltd...

Singapore-registered design subsidiary amendments

Published by the Intellectual Property of Singapore (IPOS) on September 10, 2021, amendments have been made on the Registered Designs Rules ("RD Rules") and the Registered Designs (International Registration) Rules ("RD(IR) Rules"), which took effect...

Is Section 3(d) of India’s Patents Act a workable provision? The long-term effect.

On April 1, 2013, the Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark decision in the Novartis Glivec case on the interpretation of Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act.

Patenting known substances: The problem with polymorphs

In nature, every molecule rearranges itself into different crystalline forms or shapes. Unsurprisingly, the ability of a molecule to mimic without losing its basic properties took the interest of such molecules into the helms of industrial and pharma...

India’s recent geographical indications

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines a geographical indication as “a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. In order to function as a GI...

Comparative advertising: Drawing the fine line between puffery and disparagement

Comparative advertisement refers to a marketing and promotional strategy whereby an entity’s products or services are presented as superior in comparison to a competitor’s by drawing the advantages of one’s products over the competitors’ products eit...

Date of design registration: Understanding versus reality

The Honorable High court of Karnataka was dealing with an appeal arising out of order dated March 6, 2020, passed by the city civil court in Bengaluru, in a civil suit bearing No. O.S. 235/2019. In 2019, Greenchef Appliances Limited instituted a suit...

IP awareness initiatives in India

Indian businesses are slowly transforming from being simple trading enterprises to manufacturers, service providers and creators of intellectual property. Gradually, research and innovation are taking centre stage, especially for startups, to enable...