Newsletter - India IP SME Helpdesk

In an appeal filed before the Supreme Court, MakeMyTrip, a prominent online travel operator, alleged that the Google Ads program infringed on its trademark rights. The company contends that Booking.com, a competitor, has been able to purchase the 'MakeMyTrip' keyword through Google Ads, resulting in sponsored links to Booking.com appearing in Google search results for the keyword.

India is in the process of establishing a framework to incentivize both industry and academia for creating copyrights, trademarks, and patents in technical textiles primarily designed for non-aesthetic purposes. The Ministry of Textiles has put forth a proposal entailing a 10-year period of exclusive rights for industry players to commercialise intellectual property (IP) if their funding contribution accounts for at least 50% of projects financed under the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM).

In 2023, China-based Huawei Technologies, Samsung Electronics of the Republic of Korea, and the U.S.’s Qualcomm emerged as the top users of WIPO's international patent system. Meanwhile, innovators in India experienced a remarkable surge in patent filing activity, with an increase of nearly 50%.

The Delhi High Court recently issued a dynamic injunction in favor of Viacom 18 Media Private Limited, prohibiting various unauthorised websites from streaming Indian Premier League (IPL) events for the year 2024. The court not only restrained these platforms from hosting, streaming, or making the IPL content available but also directed Domain Name Registrars to lock and suspend the identified websites.

In collaboration with Eureka Network, the India IP SME Helpdesk organises a training session aiming to apprise European Union small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on Intellectual property (IP) laws in India. The main objective of the session is to raise awareness about the market opportunities that India offers for European SMEs. The session will focus on IP protection strategies in India and how to best prepare when internationalising to India.