The second version of Eashan Ghosh’s 2020 e book “Imperfect Recollections: The Indian Supreme Court docket on Commerce Mark Regulation” is out now! Eashan shares a quick extract from the e book’s Preface, highlighting the stimuli for the second version. Eashan has been practising as an mental property advocate and guide in New Delhi since 2011 and has additionally authored quite a few visitor posts for us (see right here, right here, right here, right here, right here, right here, right here, right here and right here).
E book Launch: Second Version of “Imperfect Recollections: The Indian Supreme Court docket on Commerce Mark Regulation”
By Eashan Ghosh
I’m delighted to take this chance to share with SpicyIP readers the discharge of the second version of my e book, Imperfect Recollections: The Indian Supreme Court docket on Commerce Mark Regulation (Thomson Reuters, 2024, ISBN: 978–93–95696–95–1). The e book is accessible for order on-line right here, right here, and right here (please examine your supply space for availability). It’s also linked on the IP Books part of this weblog.
An element-wise abstract of the primary version is right here. A brief extract from the Preface to the Second Version is offered under.
“The primary week of August 2021 was a vital hinge within the trendy historical past of Indian commerce mark legislation. It noticed the introduction into Parliament of a legislation that proposed to terminate the 15+ yr tenure of the Mental Property Appellate Board (IPAB), the nation’s specialist mental property tribunal. On the time, maybe naïvely, I assumed that any laws pushing via a change so basic would require time to be fastidiously evaluated. When the proposal was tabled in Parliament on August 2, I think a straw ballot amongst authorized practitioners throughout the nation would have confirmed that mine was removed from an remoted opinion. As an alternative, by August 9, the deed was performed. The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 sailed via Parliament. By no means had the outdated saying rung out with such drive: there are many years the place nothing occurs, and there are weeks the place many years occur.
Commerce mark circumstances had dominated the docket of the erstwhile IPAB. They rested nervously on scaffolding that bridged the IPAB’s substantive commerce mark jurisdiction with the remainder of the judiciary. A lot of this scaffolding had been constructed atop Supreme Court docket case legislation. All of it was blown to bits by this singular, decades-long week in August 2021. As 1000’s of ongoing disputes had been minimize adrift from the IPAB, India’s commerce mark ecosystem got here underneath huge pressure. Now, over [three] years on from the 2021 Act, the story of how this drastic change has affected the broader meta of Indian commerce mark legislation and follow could lastly be informed. Taking on the gauntlet to take action has been a substantial motivation behind making ready a second version of Imperfect Recollections.
There was one other key stimulus for this second version. It has been rooted in documenting the breathless tempo of growth of doctrinal commerce mark legislation in India. Jurisdiction claims in commerce mark circumstances, for example, are more and more being judged in opposition to Supreme Court docket and Excessive Court docket precedent that seem like in tetchy battle. Commerce mark similarity circumstances, to take one other instance, have just lately gathered round enterprising new kinds of inquiry which can be as savvy as they’re controversial. Commerce mark courts have additionally been trying, of late, to reconcile starkly divergent Supreme Court docket opinions on the requirement for home goodwill in prior use circumstances. In the meantime, on the Supreme Court docket itself, the skew in direction of abstract remedy of commerce mark circumstances has unmistakably crossed the road between harmless tendency and deliberate coverage. Restatements on parts of the Commerce Marks Act which have been hollowed out by the modifications wrought by the 2021 Act are, in fact, totally new. On every of those points – and several other others in addition to – the dialog has shifted appreciably since I drew the curtain on the primary version of Imperfect Recollections in March 2020.”
I’m joyful to take questions in regards to the e book, and welcome feedback and suggestions. Please be at liberty to succeed in out to me on e-mail or on my Medium web page.