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Novation has existed in Indian over the counter ("OTC") derivative markets for years, but as derivative volumes and market maker turnover grew, the absence of a comprehensive framework spanning asset classes became a genuine gap. In July 2025, the Reserve Bank of India ("RBI") released a draft titled "Reserve Bank of India (Novation of OTC Derivative Contracts) Directions, 2025", seeking to close this gap through a unified set of directions. After consultation with various stakeholders, RBI finalised the framework on 22 September 2026, but abandoned the standalone Directions format.

For years, businesses have watched competitors surface on the search results page the instant a customer types their brand name. The technique is simple: buy the rival’s brand as a paid-search keyword, and your sponsored link appears alongside, or above, the results the customer was actually looking for. In Hindware Ltd. v. Grohe India Pvt. Ltd. and the connected matter against Omkara Infoweb, the Delhi High Court confronted the practice directly, and held that selling a registered trademark as an advertising keyword is itself an infringing use in advertising. Just as importantly, it held that the advertising platform cannot run the keyword auction, and keep the revenue, and then disclaim responsibility as a mere intermediary.

A trademark registration is meant to bring certainty. Yet in The Heritage Artifacts v. Registrar of Trade Marks, a mark that had been examined, advertised and registered was later cancelled by the very office that had granted it, on the ground that it was descriptive. The Delhi High Court set that cancellation aside. The decision speaks to two audiences at once: businesses choosing a brand that sits close to the descriptive line, and owners who find a granted registration suddenly under threat. It restates two settled principles, that the Registry must give cogent reasons before undoing its own grant, and that a composite mark must be read as a whole rather than pulled apart word by word.