INFOLEX NEWSLETTER - IP

Published On: 01/07/2016

Practice Area: Intellectual Property

Authors:

The second quarter of this year has seen significant developments in the field of Intellectual Property Rights in India. While the National IPR Policy was approved by the Government of India to strengthen the future of IPR in India, the Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2016 were re-published and brought in effect in May. The Controller General of Patents, Trademarks and Designs was also in news and received severe criticism for erroneously abandoning approximately 2,50,000 Trademark Applications for lack of prosecution; such abandonments were subsequently stayed by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court and the Controller was ordered not to treat any trademark applications as abandoned without proper notice to the interested parties. In addition to the above, a case before the High Courts of Delhi dealt with the issues of moral rights and discussed the scope of copyright societies. In one of the cases, the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi questioned the role of Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS), a copyright society, in granting licenses on behalf of copyright owners. Another notable case dealt with the issue of online piracy through torrent websites.