Your Trademark is your business identity with which consumers recognize and associate your business, it is your goodwill earned over time with your efforts , time and money invested. You will sooner or later come across unscrupulous elements trying to make quick profit by unauthorized use of your trademark for marketing their products, eating into your hard earned reputation and gains.
Indian Trade Marks Law provides legal remedy to protect the rights of bonafide owners of Trademarks. Two terms are significant here “infringement” and “passing off”. If you have registered your Trademark, then A Registered user of Trademark can prevent its misuse by initiating infringement action in court of law, whereas in case the Trademark is not Registered but it is a bonafide and honest adoption coupled with usage , legal remedy under Tort of Passing Off can be sought.
Following civil remedy/reliefs can be sought against Trademark #Infringement / #Passing Off :
Permanent and interim injunction against the Defendants and
Damages or
Account of profits, and
Delivery of the infringing goods for destruction.
One can also avail remedies under Criminal Law in case of false application of a Trademark and the use of false Trade Descriptions. The law provides for search and seizure of infringing articles and the offence is punishable with imprisonment and fine .
Trademark protection demands vigilance from businesses and if you believe a Trademark identical to your Trademark or a Trademark deceptively similar to that of your Trademark is being used without your permission, contact an experienced IP Attorney to take legal recourse against the culprit.
The Author Can Be Contacted At sudhamanjulajha@gmail.com OR Ph. +91-8929203324.
Vidhik-Vishleshan (Decoding The Law & More) 