India: Intellectual Property

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is scheduled to be held from June 11 to July 19, 2026, and with the advent of any major sporting event, the online piracy sites also mushroom around the same time.

A decision of a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in Dabur India Limited v. Emami Limited[1], pronounced on May 22, 2026, is a significant addition to Indian passing off jurisprudence concerning trade dress protection. The dispute arose from Dabur’s launch of Cool King Thanda Tael and Emami’s allegation that the packaging and overall get-up of Dabur’s product is deceptively similar to the long-established trade dress of Navratna Ayurvedic Oil that is sold by Emami.

In a significant ruling that underscores the importance of correctly aligning the choice of statute with the nature of the grievance, the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in Sandip S/O Ramashankar Dube vs The State of Maharashtra, quashed a First Information Report and consequent criminal proceedings that had been registered under the Copyright Act, 1957, in a matter involving the sale of counterfeit branded apparel.

Intellectual property portfolios can be destroyed not by litigation or competition, but by a single missed renewal deadline. A patent that survived years of prosecution or a trademark built over decades can vanish because an annuity payment went unpaid on a date nobody was watching. This examination reveals how these administrative failures occur under Indian statute, why restoration is far weaker than most proprietors assume, and what a defensible renewal framework looks like in practice.

India's handloom industry faces a critical challenge as traditional artisans struggle to protect their centuries-old craft from commercial exploitation despite robust legal frameworks. While the country has established comprehensive Geographical Indication laws and intellectual property protections for heritage textiles like Banarasi, Pochampally, and Kanchipuram sarees, a significant gap exists between legislative intent and practical enforcement. Can legal mechanisms truly safeguard the livelihoods of mil

Building a successful business requires more than offering quality products or services. A strong brand identity often becomes one of the company's most valuable assets. This is why TM Registration Support for Business plays a significant role in protecting brand value and supporting long term growth.

Patent pendency remains one of the most significant challenges in U.S. patent prosecution. Average first-action wait times range from approximately 20 to 29 months across Technology Centers, creating real costs for startups seeking investor credibility, life sciences companies racing toward product launches, and technology firms defending competitive market position.

In ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. Open AI OpCo LLC, CS(COMM) 1028/2024, the Delhi High Court delivered a significant judgment on the intersection of copyright law and Generative Artificial Intelligence. Deciding an application for interim injunction, the Court examined questions concerning the use of copyrighted works for training Large Language Models (LLMs), the scope of copyright infringement arising from AI-generated outputs, the applicability of the fair dealing exception under Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957, and the territorial jurisdiction of Indian courts over AI developers operating through servers located overseas.

Artificial intelligence is changing not only how products are developed, but also how inventions are conceived, tested and refined. AI and machine learning systems are increasingly being used to identify new materials, optimise industrial processes, improve medical technologies, detect anomalies, develop software architectures and generate technical solutions that may ultimately form part of a patentable invention.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (“GenAI”) represents a paradigm shift in the corporate technology landscape, evolving in a remarkably short period from an employee productivity tool to a significant concern...

In intellectual property strategy, the most consequential decisions are often not what a company chooses to patent, but what it deliberately chooses not to patent. Modern innovation ecosystems generate far more technical output than any organisation can economically prosecute through the patent system. Engineering teams iterate continuously. Manufacturing operations accumulate incremental process improvements. Software systems evolve through constant optimisation.

Every growing business develops valuable assets beyond physical infrastructure and financial resources. Brand identity, product designs, software, inventions, customer databases and proprietary business processes...