October 2022 - Blog | Trademarkmaldives

Madras HC Temporarily Restrains MobilePe from Offering UPI/BHIM Services in TM Lawsuit

In a Trademark Infringement lawsuit filed by PhonePe (the Indian digital payments and financial technology company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka), the Commercial Division of Madras High Court (HC) temporarily restrained MobilePe from offering any BHIM or UPI services.

After prima facie satisfaction that a case of deception has been made out by PhonePe, which is in a similar business line, Justice M. Sundar passed the interim order. The Madras HC said that in place of performing a side-by-side comparison, it stepped into the shoes of an average man with imperfect recollection and ordinary prudence and found a prima facie lawsuit of deception against MobilePe.

Additionally, the Madras HC noted that a possible irreparable legal injury aspect qua ‘Payments and Financial Services’ [‘UPI’ and ‘BHIM’] was also made out, which moved the aspect of the balance of convenience towards the grant of limited order of status quo as alluded to supra. Therefore, prima facie case, the balance of convenience and irreparable legal injury parameters impelled the Commercial Division of the Madras HC to grant the said limited order of status quo as of now.

The applicant/plaintiff in the said case, i.e., PhonePe, submitted evidence concerning it being the registrant or proprietor of the mark. It had even sent a Cease and Desist Notice to the defendant previously, which was followed by a reply, rejoinder, and surrejoinder. The plaintiff, after the surrejoinder, was made to believe that the defendant company, i.e., MobilePe, would not move ahead with its Trademark Application; however, on 29^th August 2022, the plaintiff got to know that the defendant’s trademark application was approved.

After hearing the parties involved, the Madras HC got convinced that “contemplation of urgent interim relief” was made out under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act. However, the Madras HC made it crystal clear that MobilePe and its related companies can very well continue with all other business activities currently carried out by them, such as wallet recharge services. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Govt. of India Rewards IIT Madras with IP Awards for 2021, 2022

The Government of India has recently granted the National Intellectual Property Awards for the years 2021 and 2022 to the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The said University has been recognized as the top Academic Institution in the nation for the filing, grant, and commercialization of patents.

According to the official press release, the said awards are granted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Piyush Goyal, the Honorable Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, gave the awards to Professor V. Kamakoti, the IIT Director, at an event held on 15^th October 2022 in New Delhi. The awards included a cash prize of Rs. 01 lac, a trophy, and a citation.

In an official statement delivered during the press release, Professor V. Kamakoti said that if any nation wants to become a world leader, safeguarding Intellectual Property (IP) is exceedingly vital. He further said that the awards granted to IIT Madras undoubtedly motivate the University to generate and protect more and more IP assets of societal impact leading to Atmanirbhar products during the Amrit Kal.

As per the official press release, the Dean at IIT Madras, Professor Manu Santhanam (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), stated that the University offers a fantastic research and innovation environment, which results in bringing out the best of its scientists, including the staff, students, and faculty members. He further mentioned that the IP Office of IC&SR also offers complete support for Patent Filing and technology transfer to the faculty members. He even said that access to the relevant search tools and highly qualified Patent Attorneys helps the University’s patent filing efforts.

The National Intellectual Property Award is presented to praise and reward the top institutions, achievers, enterprises, and individuals for their IP creations and commercialization, which contribute immensely towards strengthening the IP ecosystem in India. It is also granted to encourage their creations and innovations.

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E-Commerce Giant Amazon Launches IP Accelerator in the United Arab Emirates

E-commerce giant Amazon has recently launched an Intellectual Property (IP) Accelerator program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), thereby making it convenient and more cost-effective for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to obtain Trademark Registration, safeguard their brands, and tackle infringing products on Amazon.ae.

Available to any and every other brand selling on Amazon.ae, IP Accelerator directly connects SMB owners in the nation with a curated network of local law firms charging pre-negotiated, reduced rates on the prime services, thereby giving SMBs access to expert and professional legal and general advice on IP that may otherwise be cost-prohibitive or arduous to determine.

The Vice President at Amazon for the Middle East and North Africa, Ronaldo Mouchawar, said that Amazon is committed to supporting sellers, irrespective of their size, and introducing and innovating new resources to help them grow their businesses online confidently and keep connecting with millions of customers. He further said that Amazon is excited enough to launch the IP Accelerator program in the UAE, which is another tool that shall help businesses save effort and time as they safeguard their brands and gain customer trust.

In the UAE, the growth of the IP Accelerator program shall enable brands and businesses to connect with law firms and file Trademark Applications with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy, thereby making it simpler and cost-effective for SMBs to obtain exclusive Trademark Rights along with safeguarding their brand names and tackling counterfeit products. The said program facilitates the process by working with law firms and attorneys holding expertise in drafting trademark applications and removing or dealing with common obstacles that could otherwise delay the trademark registration of a mark.

In addition to Amazon’s IP Accelerator program, its brand protection tools help businesses of all sizes to safeguard their brand and IP assets even when their trademark applications are pending. Amazon’s Brand Registry is a free-of-cost service providing SMBs with powerful tools to help them protect and manage their brand name and exclusive trademark rights in Amazon stores. Brands and businesses benefit from Amazon’s automated and data-driven protections specializing in proactively removing inaccurate or suspected infringing content as well as from tools that enable them to detect and report a suspected infringement. Enrollment in Brand Registry also offers brands and businesses extensive influence over product information displayed on Amazon’s product detail pages to help customers make informed and confident buying decisions.

Amazon does not ask selling partners to pay some amount to use the IP Accelerator program; SMBs pay their law firms directly for the work done at pre-negotiated, reduced rates.

Businesses interested in using the IP Accelerator program can visit the link given below:

https://brandservices.amazon.ae/ipaccelerator

Law firms and attorneys interested in participating in the program can use the link given below:

https://brandservices.amazon.ae/ipaccelerator/contact

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Delhi HC Restrains Foreign Company From Using ‘TATA’ TM in Cryptocurrency Trading

The Delhi High Court, ruling in favor of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., has permanently restrained a UK-based company from unauthorisedly using the Registered Trademark ‘TATA’ of the Indian conglomerate for marketing and selling digital tokens or cryptocurrency.

Justice Prathiba M. Singh recently confirmed an ad interim injunction order of the Division Bench. She passed an order of permanent injunction against ‘HakunaMatata $TATA Founders,’ which has now changed its name to Hakumatata Token Ltd. and launched a new business website.

The Appellate Court had even asked the domain name registrar and company to take down the websites in the said lawsuit, including www.tatabonus.com and www.hakunamatata.finance.

In its order passed on 27^th September 2022, the Delhi High Court said that the lawsuit in question was liable to be decreed by way of permanent injunction granted based on paragraph 30 of the judgment dated 19^th September 2022, passed by the ld. Division Bench of the Court extracted hereinabove. The Court further said that no other reliefs were pressed.

Although the websites in question had no physical presence in India but were accessed in the nation daily, Tata filed the lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction restraining violation or infringement of its registered trademarks.

On 19^th September 2022, the Division Bench had set aside an order passed by the Single Judge refusing interim relief to Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. While the Single Judge didn’t have a doubt over Tata’s entitlement to file the lawsuit in Delhi, it did, however, have a doubt over its extraterritorial jurisdiction to issue a legal injunction against the overseas parties through the way of an ad-interim order.

The Division Bench, in appeal, ruled that there undoubtedly were sufficient indicators to assume jurisdiction for deciding the application for an ad-interim injunction.

‘HakunaMatata $TATA Founders,’ subsequent to the filing of the lawsuit in question, took down its websites www.tatabonus.com and www.hakunamatata.finance and even changed its company name. It also launched a new website called ‘www.hakunamatatatoken.com’ by removing all references to the ‘TATA’ mark. Moreover, the name of the company’s cryptocurrency was also changed to $HKUN Token.

However, Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. did send a legal notice seeking an undertaking from the company that it would never use the ‘TATA’ mark in the future, to which it didn’t receive any response.

Justice Singh, perusing screenshots of the websites, noted that other than changing the name of the cryptocurrency and domain names, even the ‘TATA’ merchandise being sold on the websites was rebranded as ‘HKUN.’

The Delhi High Court also mentioned that the defendant was repeatedly given notices and summons; however, they chose not to appear before the Court. The Court said that since no other physical or email addresses were available to contact the defendant and the impugned websites were also taken down, issuance of further notices and summons to the defendant in the lawsuit discussed became an impossibility. As of now, the defendant is being proceeded against ex parte. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com