Search Indian IP Case Law
Judgments of the Supreme Court and the High Courts on patents, trade marks, copyright, designs and geographical indications — organised by Act and section, each with a link to the judgment on the court’s website.
Recently added judgments
Case notes prepared by the Ragulika IP team, each linked to the judgment on the court’s website.
Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. v. The Controller of Patents
Although the deuterated compound demonstrated approximately 72% higher parent-drug exposure in the blood, the comparative studies showed substantially similar pharmacological activity between the deuterated and non-deuterated comp…
Deuterated CompoundsHeterocycle-fused Gamma-carbolinesParent Drug ExposurePharmacological ActivityPatentsITC Limited v. Controller of Patents, Designs and Trademarks
Section 3(b) of the Patents Act, 1970 excludes an invention only where its primary or intended use or commercial exploitation is shown, on identifiable evidence, to be contrary to public order or morality or seriously prejudicial …
FER PrinciplesNatural JusticePatent ProsecutionPublic Order And MoralityTrade MarksITC Limited v. Nestle India Limited
Common, laudatory or descriptive expressions used across an industry to denote the flavour or quality of a product cannot be monopolised by a single trader as a trade mark, even where that trader was the first to use the expressio…
Descriptive MarksGeneric MarksGoodwillPassing OffOtherJaikishan Kakubhai Saraf alias Jackie Shroff v. The Peppy Store & Ors.
A celebrity's personality and publicity rights extend to protection against commercial exploitation of name, image, voice and mannerisms, including through an unlicensed artificial-intelligence chatbot or distorted video content; …
AI And DeepfakesFreedom Of SpeechParodyPersonality RightsTrade MarksKaviraj Pandit Durga Dutt Sharma v. Navaratna Pharmaceutical Laboratories
An action for infringement of a registered trade mark is a statutory remedy in which the use of a deceptively similar mark is itself actionable regardless of get-up, packaging or intent to deceive, whereas an action for passing of…
Acquired DistinctivenessDeceptive SimilarityDescriptive MarksInfringementPatentsKoninklijke Philips N.V. v. Maj. (Retd.) Sukesh Behl & Anr.
A defendant cannot avoid liability for infringing a standard essential patent by pointing to the existence of obligations to license on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms; once essentiality and infringement are establis…
DamagesFRANDPatent InfringementSection 3(k)CopyrightKrishika Lulla & Ors. v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta & Anr.
The title of a literary, dramatic or cinematographic work, being ordinarily a short combination of common words, is not by itself a work in which copyright can subsist under Section 13(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957, since it la…
Copyright InfringementIdea-Expression DichotomyLiterary WorkOriginalityPatentsKroll Information Assurance, LLC v. The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks & Ors.
A computer-related invention overcomes the exclusion under Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 only where it is shown to produce a specific technical effect or advancement in the functioning of the underlying hardware, going bey…
Claim AmendmentComputer Related InventionsSection 3(k)Software PatentTrade MarksLaxmikant V. Patel v. Chetanbhai Shah & Anr.
A trading or business name, though not a registered trade mark, is protectable in a passing off action once it has acquired goodwill through use; the tort protects established business reputation rather than the name itself, and n…
GoodwillInterim InjunctionPassing OffPersonal Name MarksTrade MarksMarico Limited v. Agro Tech Foods Limited
A trade mark consisting of ordinary descriptive words remains vulnerable to a competitor's bona fide descriptive use under Sections 30(2)(a) and 35 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, notwithstanding registration; such a mark attains pr…
Descriptive MarksDistinctivenessGeneric MarksPassing OffBrowse by Act and section
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