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India is a diversified market with a wide range of industries that follow the theory of free markets. In the market system, there is fierce competition. Any business that wants to succeed in the free market must build both registration for brand value and recognition. The most straightforward method for achieving this is through trademarks. Three strategies can be employed to demonstrate the requirement for trademarks in order to symbolize goods or services:
Once a trademark has acquired this kind of value, it must be safeguarded against infringement and abuse by third parties.
India's trademark laws are governed by the 1999 Trademarks Act (henceforth referred to as that Act). The Act establishes guidelines for trademark registration, protection, and infringement penalties. All around the world, trademarks are treated as intellectual property. Numerous national and international organizations work to safeguard intellectual property, including trademarks.
The Indian Patent Office, which is run by the General Controller of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks, is the organization in India that handles trademark protection. Simply put, unauthorized use of a mark that is confusingly similar to or identical to a trademark or a trademark is used without the owner's permission or approval that is registered is trademark infringement. The phrase "deceptively similar" here refers to the likelihood that a third party uses a trademark so that typical consumer may be confused about the source of the products or services upon seeing the mark. The owner of a trademark is entitled to bring legal action against the infringer.
There are two sorts of trademark infringement that one needs to be aware of when investigating:
The 29th section of the Act defines direct infringement. A direct breach can only happen if certain conditions are satisfied. These are as follows:
This indicates that a trademark is only violated when someone uses it without permission from the registered trademark owners. It does not amount to infringement if the mark is used with the owner of the brand registered under trademark's consent.
The trademark that is being used without authorization must either be the exact same as the trademark or brand that has been registered or be confusingly similar to it. The phrase "deceptively similar" in this context simply indicates that the average consumer "may" be perplexed and believe the two marks to be identical. Since "may" is the operational word in this context, proof of this concept's existence is sufficient; proof of its actual occurrence is not needed. The presence of a possibility of misidentifying the marks suffices to establish infringement.
The Act solely provides protection for trademarks that are registered with the Indian Trademark Registry. Common law passing off is applied to resolve issues involving infringement of unregistered marks. This tort law is applied in situations where the actions of an individual or group of individuals result in harm or damage to the goodwill of others.
For trademark infringement, unauthorized utilization of the mark must be used to propagate goods or services that are in the same class as the registered trademark.
In contrast to direct infringement, indirect infringement is not expressly covered by any Act provision. This does not absolve anyone of responsibility for indirect infringement, though. The universal law principle gives rise to the concept of indirect infringement and its application. It holds responsible not just the primary violator but also everyone who helps or encourages the direct perpetrator to violate the law. Two categories of indirect infringement exist:
In accordance with Section 114 of that Act, a company's entire organization shall be held accountable for any offenses committed under this Act. As a result, everyone accountable for the business, aside from those who behaved in an honest way and without knowing of the infringement, will be held accountable for indirect infringement in addition to the primary offender. The following conditions must be met for vicarious liability:
A company's vicarious liability for infringement is only abrogated in the event that it acted in an honest way and was unaware of the infringement.
Contributory infringement consists of just three fundamental components:When an individual is aware of a violation; when an individual materially contributes to a direct violation; or when an individual coerces the primary violator to engage in unlawful behavior There is no exception in the situation of contributory infringement since there is no possibility that the contributing infringer will act honorably.
Since trademark infringement is considered a cognisable offense in India, the perpetrator may be charged with a crime in addition to civil offenses. Additionally, registration of the trademark is not necessary under Indian law in order to initiate civil or criminal procedures. This is because of the common law doctrine of passing off, as was previously mentioned. The court may grant the following remedies in cases of passing off or trademark infringement:
The following punishment is determined by the court in a criminal proceeding:
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