Facts You Never Knew About Trademark Litigation In India

1. A trademark, without hesitation, can be labelled as one of the most significant forms of intellectual property. Significant efforts are usually expended to come up with original and exclusive trademarks to distinguish one’s goods/services from those of others, or else the whole point of a trademark becomes moot. While trademark awareness has risen sharply in India in the past few years, it has also given way to an upsurge in trademark specific contentious matters. In terms of trademark litigation, one way a proprietor can protect his or her rights is through civil remedies. Civil remedies can be enforced by filing a suit for either infringement and/or passing off in the competent court being the District Court (section 134, Trade Marks Act). Such proceedings make the following remedies available to the claimant: -> Injunction: this can either be interlocutory, temporary or permanent. -> Mareva injunction: this can be granted to protect the interests of the rights holder by restraining the defendant from disposing of infringing assets (evidence) until disposal of the suit. -> Anton Piller orders: an order given to claimant in the absence of the defendant allowing him or her to: access the defendant's premises and inspect infringing evidence, books of accounts and so on. to remove such items from safe custody if there is danger of disposal of infringing material.   -> John Doe orders: these are issued against unknown/anonymous defendants and are extremely effective when infringement is identified by rights holders, but the source of infringement cannot be positively identified. -> Quia timet actions: these can be filed by the claimant who apprehends infringement and other violation of its trademark rights as a result of the defendant's activities. The rights holder can be entitled to an injunction if there is a reasonable apprehension of harm being caused. -> Damages/accounts of profits: claimants must choose either damages or accounts of profit. Grant of damages is compensatory in nature and makes good the loss caused to the claimant. Accounts of profit is an equitable remedy which requires the defendant to hand over to the claimant actual amounts of profit made due to the infringing activities/. -> Destruction and delivery up: the infringer is directed to deliver the infringing material to the claimant or destroy it in the presence of a local commissioner (appointed by the court) or by the claimant himself.

2. Thus, for trademark proprietors, regardless of whether they have a trademark registration in India or not, various civil remedies are available to them to protect their interests. Contact Us: Address- Remfry House, Millennium Plaza, Sector 27, Near IFFCO Chowk Metro Station Opposite Huda metro station, Gurugram, Haryana 122009 Phone: 0124-2806100 Website- http://www.remfry.com Source: https://bit.ly/2zAomLF