Your brand is your most important asset in the highly competitive world of business today. Trademark protection goes beyond your logo or name; it includes all of your goodwill, reputation, and customers’ trust. The Indian IP attorneys at our firm can offer you both comprehensive Trademark Litigation services to protect, enforce, and defend your valuable intellectual property across India.
If you realise that someone is using your trademark without authorisation, or if you need to take action against someone infringing your trademark, our experienced attorneys will ensure your brand is protected throughout the process.
Trademark Infringement Suits
Trademark infringement can invariably lead to lawsuits under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, when a registered trademark has been utilised in an unauthorised manner, resulting in confusion for the consumer.
We work with clients who are initiating or defending infringement proceedings at the appropriate District or High Court and can pursue the following remedies:
- Permanent and/or interim injunctions
- Damages and/or account of profits
- Delivery up and destruction of infringing goods
- Legal expenses
Our services revolve around objective and well-drafted legal documents along with the implementation of effective strategies to address our clients’ problems.
Passing Off Actions
Passing off is one way for businesses to protect their goodwill from being copied by other parties. A business can bring an action against another party for passing off by showing that the other party has represented their goods or services as if they belong to the original brand.
If your business is involved in a dispute and you have a competing business that is using a similar trade name or logo, using packaging that looks like yours (known as a trade dress dispute), using a domain name that is similar to yours, or falsely representing their goods or services through misleading advertising, we can help you with your case.
We carefully establish the requisite goodwill, misrepresentation, and damages that must be proven to succeed in a passing off claim.
It is important to be proactive in protecting your brand during the registration process. We help our clients with Oppositions and Rectification Proceedings before the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks and the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (formerly known as the Intellectual Property Office).
Protecting Your Brand- Opposition and Rectification Proceedings
The following services can be provided for our clients:
- Filing and defending trademark opposition
- Evidence preparation/affidavit drafts
- Developing a cross-examination strategy
- Filing and defending Rectification and Cancellation of applications against wrongfully registered marks
Through proactive intervention at the registry level, we assist clients with preventing either proximity/dilution or unlawful monopolisation of their trademarks by similar trademarks.
Injunction Matters
In managing trademark disputes, time is critical. Injunctions are often the most strategic phase in litigation because relief is available to remedy any harm/damages, and that relief, if not obtained immediately, may result in irreparable harm/damages to the trademark and/or business.
We frequently apply for:
- Interim Ex Parte Injunctions
- Temporary Injunctions
- Anton Piller Orders (Search/Seizure)
- John Doe Orders (against unknown infringers)
Once we have identified the infringer, we then move swiftly to identify and obtain immediate, urgent relief, particularly in the case of Trademark Infringement, Counterfeit Goods, and Parallel Imports.
With the increasing prevalence of a digital global economy, the nature of trademark conflicts has become more than just traditional marketplace disputes, but now, also include e-commerce sites, social media platforms, online marketplaces, and domain names, among other things. Companies are now confronted with more complex types of acts of trademark infringement such as
(1) keyword advertising infringement
(2) cybersquatting
(3) meta-tagging, and
(4) unauthorized listings on Third Party Platforms.
Our trademark litigation practice is set up to assist our clients in accessing a solution to the problems created by modern trademark infringements quickly and correctly. We help our clients identify instances of infringement through conducting market research and digital monitoring; gathering electronic admissible evidence; and filing lawsuits in competent court jurisdictions under the provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1999.
In cases, we work with intermediaries and/or online platforms to ensure the expeditious removal of infringing content that meets the requirements of applicable Information Technology regulations. Our attorneys recognize that brand dilution can occur in less than obvious ways such as through similarities or other forms of unfair and/or dishonest behaviour in relation to the unlawful misuse of trade marks.
Counterfeiting Issues
Both counterfeiters and counterfeit merchandise present numerous threats to businesses from a skewed economic perspective, as well as adversely affecting a brand’s reputation. Our firm has experience in handling complex Counterfeiting cases that involve large-scale unauthorized production of branded goods, packaging, and/or labels.
We provides following services:
- Work with law enforcement Authorities to coordinate enforcement actions.
- File criminal complaints against counterfeiters to get the necessary evidence for raids.
- Regulate Seizure of Counterfeit Goods
- Seek parallel civil Action to seek damages and obtain injunctions.
Through a proactive approach, we help dismantle counterfeit networks and help to establish and maintain the integrity of your brand in both the physical and digital markets.
Our Methodology
Our Trademark Litigation approach is based upon:
- Diligent, thorough due diligence and evidence-based strategies.
- Aggressive courtroom advocacy.
- Economical and time-effective solutions.
- A client focuses on providing advisory services that are tailored to their specific business objectives.
We represent the following types of clients: startups, SMEs, multinational corporations, and individuals who are brand owners, in a variety of different industries, including technology, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), pharmaceuticals, fashion, education, and financial technology.
Reasons to Choose Our Services
- Our deep knowledge of Indian Trademark Law
- Our extensive experience with all aspects of high-stakes commercial litigation and commercial disputes.
- Our ability to utilize a strategic combination of civil and criminal remedies.
- Our ability to connect clients with their clients quickly for injunctions.
- Comprehensive support for regulatory compliance from registry through appellate litigation.
Labels represent more than just an identity; they represent the competitive advantages of your business. By utilizing our extensive knowledge of Trademark infringement litigation, passing off claims, oppositions and rectifications of trademark registrations, and the ability to respond quickly to injunctive relief actions, and aggressively handling Counterfeiting cases, we help ensure that your intellectual property is protected, and that you can enforce that protection.