Trademark Law

 Trademark of a product or service distinguishes it from other similar products and services. Trademarks are used for brand building and advertisements. They play a significant role in market driven economies, which operate with world economy. It has been often observed that large shares of markets are owned by few leading brands. This results in monopoly. In countries that have weak trademark laws, the market may be flooded by foreign brands that give tough competition to domestic brands.

 Trademark is a distinguished symbol or sign owned by a person or persons pertaining to their product or services. A trademark can be a word, symbol, phrase or object which a consumer uses to identify the product. A trademark should be registered under the trademark law in India so that it obtains maximum legal protection.  

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author/creator of an original intellectual property, such as musical work, artistic work and films. These rights are in consonance with copyright laws in India. Once this is done, the rights can be licensed, transferred or assigned. However, the copyright is granted for certain period of time. The copyright issues in India are addressed by the Copyright Act, 1957.

Indian law stipulates that a trademark is an exclusive and unique sign or symbol owned by a person, corporation or legal entity, which enables a consumer to identify and associate with their products or services. A trademark can be a visual symbol, word, logo, phrase, name or image. Think about some popular trademarks that pop up in your mind even as you are reading this– McDonalds, Pepsi, Adidas, Reebok, just to mention a few.

The Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 governs trade mark registration laws in India. However, a trade mark can be refused on certain grounds as mentioned under section 9 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

The Indian Patents Act, 1970 and the Patent Rules, 1972 govern the patent laws in India. Patent laws in India were first introduced by the British rulers to save the inventor interests through the Indian Patents and Design Act, 1911. The Indian Patents Act requires a company to follow a certain procedure to obtain patent right and gain commercial benefits from the invention.

Stating that the Internet is massive would be an understatement. The amount of content, which includes texts, sounds and images, circulating on the Internet is expanding exponentially and we are witnesses to it. This makes the issue of internet copyright infringements more serious and an insurmountable task to tackle. However, different nations have incorporated different laws to deal with Internet copyright issues, principally infringement. In this discussion, we will cover the global legal overview that is accepted in most countries while dealing with Internet content infringement cases.