IP Connect

Delhi High Court stays the abandonment of inexplicably huge amount of Trademark Application

Earlier this week we had reported that the Indian Trade Marks Registry, after abandoning a huge number of applications, had given further opportunity by releasing a public notice dated April 4^th, 2016 to all the parties who have been adversely affected by it. By the said notice, Mr. Om Prakash Gupta, Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, had sought representations from applicants whose applications have been erroneously deemed as abandoned, the deadline for which was set on April 30, 2016.

However, on April 5^th, 2016, a writ petition was filed by the Intellectual Property Attorneys Association & Others in which, Honorable Justice Mr. Manmohan of the Delhi High Court, after hearing the contentions from both the sides and noticing the startling figures of disposal within a very short period of time, stayed the orders of abandonment passed by the Trade Mark office on or after March 20^th, 2016. The learned Judge further added that the Office shall not treat any Trademark application as abandoned without proper notice to an affected party as provided under Sections 21, 128, and 132 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

Total number of disposals from March 20 to the April 5, 2016 are –

Branch	Applications Disposed
Ahmedabad	15850
Chennai	47944
Delhi	57675
Kolkata	14851
Mumbai	57588
Total Applications	193908

The said copy of the order dated April 5, 2016 can be accessed here.