Trademark offices in the Middle East and India are becoming more receptive to nontraditional trademarks, said panelists at a session today.
Pravin Anand, of Anand & Anand in New Delhi focused on decisions by the Trademark Office to allow the registration of a sound mark for YAHOO! , a leather texture trademark for LOUIS VUITTON and the ZIPPO lighter shape, which was also successfully enforced in the Delhi High Court, “which hears 70% of IP litigation in the country.”
Anand also pointed to a series of indicators that show that enforcement is improving in India”, including the fact that Indian courts now recognize trans-border reputation, better protect well-known marks and are using stronger remedies such as Anton Piller orders, Mareva injunctions and punitive damages. On the negative side, win rates in trademark cases have gone down because some judges have decided that trademark law has become too strong and defendants have become more adept at using procedural grounds to win cases.
“The most liberal office to date in the Middle East is the UAE Trademarks Office,” said Omar Obeidat of Al Tamimi & Company. Obeidat looked at all the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He used the example of Mars, which won a case in the courts in the UAE over infringement of its design for a GALAXY JEWELS chocolate box.
Mars is also one of the few companies whose marks have been recognized as well known by the courts in Pakistan, said Badaruddin Vellani of Vellani & Vellani. In 2001 the Sindh High Court of Karachi had recognized MARS as a well known trademark and granted it an interim injunction. Vellani also outlined the domain name dispute resolution policy in Pakistan.
