Does the sale of imported, genuine products, without the consent of the holder of intellectual property (IP) rights in India, constitute infringement under the Trade Marks Act, 1999?
Ruling in Samsung Electronics Company & Ors v Kapil Wadhwa & Ors, Delhi High Court recently held that the import of goods that bear the mark of a registered proprietor by anyone other than the registered proprietor or permissive mark holder is an infringement under section 29 of the Trade Marks Act.
Reflecting on issues of exhaustion of IP rights and drawing parallels between the trademark laws of the UK and India, the court held that India followed the principle of national exhaustion with regard to trademarks. The court also held that the use of meta-tags and deep links in websites that advertised the products violated the trademark rights of the owner as it “cannot in any manner [be] categorized as fair use”.
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The update of court judgments is compiled by Bhasin & Co, Advocates, a corporate law firm based in New Delhi. The authors can be contacted at lbhasin@bhasinco.in or lbhasin@gmail.com. Readers should not act on the basis of this information without seeking professional legal advice.
