iBall, Ericsson are now FRANDS

We previously reported in our newsletter dated September 07, 2015 Vol VII, Issue No. 36 about the injunction granted by the Delhi High Court on September 02, 2015 in the suit no. CS (OS) 2501/2015 filed by Ericsson, against the Indian consumer electronics company, iBall for importing the devices that were infringing the Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer’s essential patents. Click here to access the news reported.

Ericsson alleged that iBall had infringed the following patents:

Later, the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court directed the companies to try to finalize a license agreement.

Now, as per the news reported in the daily “The Hindu”, iBall and Ericsson have settled their dispute on patent infringement case and have executed a Global Patent License Agreement (GPLA) in November following the Court’s direction.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/iball-ericsson-settle-patent-issue/article7900713.ece

Click here to access the court order.

Indian Patent Office to appoint more examiners

As informed by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Nirmala Sitahraman, to the Lok Sabha on November 30, 2015, 2,46,495 (246 thousand) patent applications and 5,32,682 (532 thousand) trademark applications are pending as on November 01, 2015.

As of October 31, in the present financial year, India has granted 3,581 patents, registered 37,799 trademarks, and has rejected 605 patent applications and 6,543 trademark registrations. 

Such delay in registration procedure is caused due to the lack of manpower and infrastructure. Mrs. Nirmala Sitahraman has stated that the Government of India has sanctioned 373 additional posts in the patent wing, including 252 posts of Examiners of Patents and Designs and 76 posts of Controllers of Patents and Designs. The recruitment process to fill 459 vacant posts of Examiners of Patents and Designs is stated to be underway. Besides, as a short-term measure, 263 contractual posts of Examiners of Patents and Designs are also stated to have been created.

Mrs. Nirmala Sitahraman added that amendments to the Trade Marks and Patent Rules have also been suggested to streamline the procedure of filing and disposal of applications.

Further, Dr. K.S. Kardam, Senior Joint Controller of Patents & Designs, Delhi Patent Office, in his opening speech on December 01, 2015 at the 2^nd International Conference on IP Law and Enforcement of IPR organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, emphasized on the need for increasing the strength of IP Officers in India. He stated that 431 new posts have been advertised wherein 252 are for the post of Patent Examiners. Further, 459 new posts for regular Patent Examiners are going to be appointed within this month, in addition to 250 examiners on contract, by the National Productivity Council. Therefore, by the beginning of next year, India is slated to have more than 850 examiners to reduce the pendency of examination of Patent Applications.

Nestle’s Maggi Pazzta - The Ban Saga Continues in India

Within days of Nestle relaunching its Maggi noodles on November 9, 2015, after it was taken off the shelves by the ban imposed by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) in June, fresh troubles have brewed up for Nestle over its pasta products.

A state-owned food testing laboratory in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India has found that Nestle’s Maggi Pazzta samples contain lead beyond the permissible limit. While the permissible standard limit for lead is 2.5 PPM (parts per million) the lead content as reported in news reports in the tested sample was found to be 6 PPM, which puts Maggi Pazzta into the “unsafe food category”.

Nestle’s Maggi Pazzta samples were collected earlier this year in June from a Nestle distributor, Sriji Traders, in Mau, Uttar Pradesh, and were sent to the National Food Analysis Laboratory in Lucknow. According to the report received earlier this year in September, the said samples have failed the tests.

While Nestle has denied having received any official notification from the authorities in Uttar Pradesh, the officials assert that a letter informing Nestle of the discrepancy in their product was dispatched and was returned back undelivered. As of now, the aforesaid report has been sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner (Lucknow) for sanction to file a case in this matter with the appropriate court of authority which may lead to Nestle facing a ban on one more of its products.

Draft Patent (Amendment) Rules India- Deadline for sending submission extended

The Indian Patent Office has extended the deadline for submitting the comments on Draft Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2015 to December 11, 2015.

Objections or suggestion, if any, may be sent by e-mail at rajiv.aggarwal@nic.in or at the below address, before the aforesaid deadline:

The Secretary,

Ministry of Commerce and Industry,

Government of India, Udyog Bhawan,

New Delhi or.

Source: http://www.ipindia.nic.in/

Click here to access the notification.  

Click here to access the Draft Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2015

S. S Rana & Co. Participated at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2015

Vidya Darshan Rana Charitable Trust and S.S. Rana & Co. participated in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, 2015.

S.S. Rana & Co. and Vidya Darshan Rana Charitable Trust participated in yet another successful “Airtel Delhi half Marathon” 2015 on November 29, 2015.

Our firm in its continuous effort to promote healthy way of life encourages all members to participate in sports events like running, football, cricket, bowling etc.

The Founding Partners as well as the employees of S.S. Rana & Co. have participated in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon for the last five years and contributed to charity as part of the firm’s CSR policy & program.

Trinamool v. Trinamul: Name War for Political Parties

A recent dispute between two Indian political parties namely the All India Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Trinamul Congress Party (NTCP) over use of phonetically similar name has sparked off a debatable issue relating to applicability of trademark laws while registering names of political parties.

Reportedly, the whole matter came up before the Election Commission (EC) after Trinamool Congress objected to NTCP’s use of a phonetically similar name “Trinamul”. Here it would be relevant to mention that an order (No. 56/2014/PPS-I) issued by the Election Commission on May 19, 2014 has directed that political parties seeking registration under the Representation of People Act, 1951 shall not have any religious connotation and the names should not be similar to the names of existing political parties that may lead to confusion.

There are other political parties existing as well which have similar names like Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India. Similarly there are other political parties like DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) which have similar names of parties.

Names, logos, symbols and the recently evolved trend of slogans for promotions like Har Haath Shakti, Har Haath Tarraki (of Indian National Congress) and Ache Din Ane Wale Hai (of Bhartiya Janta Party) serve as a major identifier for political parties. Some political parties have registered or applied for registration of their parties’ names, like in the present case, NTCP had rebutted Trinamool Congress’s objection by stating that it had applied for trademark registration of the name “Trinamul” and the same could not be claimed as “personal property” by a political outfit (as reported by the Times of India on November 18, 2015).

*Abhishek Banerjee, proprietor of the trademark All India Trinamool Congress (Device) and Amitabha Majumdar, proprietor of the trademark Nationalist Trinamul Congress Party are candidates of the respective political parties.

As noted above, the applicability of trademark law which also prohibits the use of an identical mark or a deceptively similar mark is relevant in the instant case or not is yet to be seen.

Typically, a trademark serves meaning and function in relation to goods and services and its use in commerce or in the course of trade. Hence, the present case is an interesting one and whether the applicability of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 while registering names of political parties (which do not serve any practical commercial purpose) is relevant or not is a contentious issue in the present dispute.

Ministry of Commerce and Industry invites Comments on the Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, has published Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015 to replace the Trade Marks Rules, 2002 which the Central Government proposes to do in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 157 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 for the information of all persons likely to be affected by them.

Some of the highlights of the proposed amendment are as under:

• The number of forms for filing various applications have been simplified and consolidated into fewer forms
• Wide discretionary powers have been given to the Registrar of Trade Marks to determine whether or not a trade mark is “well-known” and include it in the list maintained at the Registrar’s office.
• The application fee for inclusion of a trade mark to the list of well-known trademarks is INR 1,00,000/- (1 lakh) for e-filing and INR 1,10,000/- for physical filing.
• For determining whether or not a trade mark can be registered as well-known, the Registrar may stipulate the criteria in this regard and also call for such documents as he thinks fit. The Registrar is also empowered to remove the trade mark if it was later found that the same was erroneously included in the list.
• Applications for sound marks can now be accompanied by a sound file in MP3 format.
• Steep rise in various fees, from filing of trade mark applications to its renewal. Almost all the fees have been increased by 100%. An extra 10% will be levied against the fees if the trade mark application and forms are not submitted in the electronic mode, but are filed physically.

*Proposed fees listed above are for e-filing only. An additional 10% charge will be levied for physical (paper) filing of applications.

The Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules will be take into consideration after the expiry of a period of thirty days from November 19, 2015 i.e. within December 18, 2015.

The Ministry has invited objections/ suggestions from the public on the Draft Rules by December 18, 2015.

The objections/ suggestions can be addressed to the Additional Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry sent by e-mail to sahni.palka@nic.in or mailed to the following address:

Additional Secretary to the Government of India,

Ministry of Commerce and Industry,

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion,

Udyog Bhavan,

New Delhi – 110 011

Our firm is also taking steps to submit its comments on the said Draft Rules. We would, therefore, request all our readers to send us their comments/ objections/ suggestions to the said Draft (Amendment) Rules, 2015, if any, so that we may include them in our comments.

The Draft Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules, 2015 can be accessed here.