INSIGHTS

Introduction When Cross-Border Contracts Become Complex Consider a situation where an Indian importer makes a long-term supply agreement with a manufacturer. The transaction starts well. A dispute arises later about defective goods and delayed payments. The Indian party wants to solve the dispute in the courts, but the Vietnamese party wants it in Vietnam. Questions come up about who decides, which laws apply and how to enforce any decision made. These situations happen ofte

Introduction India’s approach to branding has become different. A decade back, the rule was to start in English and then localize. Now, brands starting D2C or regional first take the opposite route, choosing a Hindi name, a Devanagari-Roman combination logo, or even building the mark to be flexible with scripts from the beginning. While this may be seen as only a marketing decision, it places the brand firmly within an area that remains largely unaddressed in India’s trademar

Introduction The constant inception of new technologies by industries puts patents at risk. Having more than 3.7 million patents means IP attorneys struggle to manually assess whether someone has infringed on their invention. Despite the traditional methods, the challenge and patent avalanche are too great. The current era is only beginning to patent inventions, and the actual value of an invention comes from the fact that the rights of the patentee are protected by their rig

Introduction India’s first accepted olfactory trademark is a significant moment in Indian trademark law. The acceptance of Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ rose-scent application raises important questions about graphical representation, distinctiveness, and functionality, as well as the recognition of non-traditional trademarks under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. This article examines the challenges related to olfactory marks, referencing the landmark Sieckmann decision. It also ana

Introduction In the digital age, content knows no borders, but ownership remains trapped in grey zones, Copyright wars shatter creativity, and the law still stays in its ambiguous zone. Infringers wage a silent war that slowly unfolds - where echoes of ownership grow cold. Over-the-top Platforms came to the rescue of people during the quarantine phase, bringing the industry to a boom. The global market size of the digital platform was $0.45 trillion in 2024, attracting around

Introduction A modern infusion pump, pacemaker programmer or radiology workstation is rarely a finished object at the point of sale. The manufacturer keeps changing it: firmware patches, feature unlocks, and now machine-learning models that are retrained and pushed out long after the device has left the factory. That ongoing change creates a problem Indian intellectual property law never set out to solve. When the code on a device that has already been sold is rewritten, does

Introduction Imagine arriving at work to find that your company’s website has gone down, email unreachable and the company’s digital presence all blank. Now imagine all of these problems are not caused by a hacker or government. In fact, he is the founder of the company. This is somewhat the story behind Lazarus Enterprises Inc. Lazarus Enterprises Inc, the AI software business headquartered in Boston in December 2025 found itself locked out of the registrar accounts controll

Introduction A product’s visual identity now rivals its name or logo in importance. Packaging, color schemes, shapes, and overall design are not merely aesthetic choices; they are powerful tools of brand communication that shape consumer perception and purchasing decisions. This distinctive visual presentation, legally recognized as trade dress, has become a cornerstone of intellectual property protection worldwide. In India, where consumer markets are diverse and highly comp

Introduction A car where the back seat heater will only turn on if you pay the monthly fee. A smart speaker that quietly loses a feature it originally had only because the company after a year decided to take fees for that feature, the biggest example is Spotify. No new sales But the manufacturer introduced a firmware update and now the owner cannot do anything with the thing that they have purchased. This is the new way of owning hardware. Devices not sold and left alone. It

Introduction Regulation 2 (w) of the ICDR Regulations, 2018 defines Initial Public Offer [“IPO”] as an offer of specified securities by an unlisted issuer to the public for subscription and includes an offer for sale of specified securities to the public by any existing holders of such specified securities in an unlisted issuer. In easy words, an Initial Public Offering is the process by which a private company sells its shares to the public for the first time to raise equity

Introduction The landscape of cross-border intellectual property transfers and tax liability in India has undergone a significant shift over the years. Indian jurisdiction is moving more towards the principle of economic substance instead of emphasizing on formal documentation. For multinational enterprises the intersection of IP situs, royalty characterization, and General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) now demands a strategy which is grounded in operational reality rather than

Introduction India's franchise sector has expanded significantly in food chains, retail stores, and coaching centers, enabling brands to grow without substantial investments. However, when companies license their name and logo to numerous partners without quality oversight, consumer experiences vary across outlets. Consequently, the legal value of the mark diminishes, as trademarks are intended to ensure consumers receive consistent experiences. Every franchise deal is really