Skip to main content

Trademarks Act apex court dismisses govt appeal

By
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the government’s appeal against a March verdict by the Madras high court that declared several key provisions in the Trademarks Act as unconstitutional.
A bench comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana dismissed the special leave petition filed by the government, giving finality to the earlier high court judgement.
Ruling on a public interest litigation filed by Shamnad Basheer, founder of the SpicyIP (intellectual property) blog, the high court struck down several key provisions of the Trademarks Act, 1999, which established the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB).
The Madras high court ruling struck down provisions on the appointment of judicial and technical members of IPAB. Under the court’s ruling, a very small pool of government officials would now be eligible for appointment as technical members to adjudicate on trademark matters, giving primacy to the legal nature of the tribunal.
Questioning the relevance of IPAB in effectively deciding matters, Basheer said a number of IPAB rulings do not necessarily reflect outstanding IP expertise or competence.
“The high courts often do a far better job when these cases go in appeal. The two major reasons for creating a tribunal such as the IPAB was to bring in specialist expertise and reduce pendency at the high courts, which will have to be relooked now,” he said when.
Saikrishna Rajagopal, mananging director of Saikrishna and Associates, said an amendment in the Trademarks Act is the way forward. “The government must now look at policy change in the matter that will pass the test of consitutionality,” he said.
IPAB did not reply to an email from Mint seeking response.
HT Mint, New Delhi, 28th July 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more