Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University,

Lucknow

2016-2017

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS-I

SYNOPSIS

Pay trademarks war :case study

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Ms. Priya Anuragini sandeep singh rathaur

Assistant Professor (Law) Roll No. 114

RMLNLU, Lucknow VIth Semester

 ABSTRACT

In India, the definition of trademarks under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, includes shapes and
packaging as long as it is capable of being represented graphically and is able to distinguish
goods and services of one person from those of another. Trademark is a
recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a particular
source from those of others, although trademarks used to identify services are usually
called service marks. The trademark owner can be an individual, business organization, or
any legal entity. A trademark may be located on a package, a label, a voucher, or on the product
itself. For the sake of corporate identity, trademarks are often displayed on company buildings. A
trademark identifies the brand owner of a particular product or service

Point of contention

The Californian-based company, PayPal, has accused Paytm of using a logo that is "deceptively
and confusingly similar" to its own in a complaint filed with the Indian trademark office.
The complaint by PayPal says that Paytm "slavishly adopted the two-tone blue colour scheme"
of the trademarked PayPal logo. In its notice, PayPal also said that it has been using its
trademark across several countries since 1999.

PayPal filed its opposition citing the visual similarity between the PayPal logo and the Paytm
logo (both logos incorporate similar light blue and dark blue elements). It argued that the Paytm
logo is "deceptively and confusingly similar" to PayPal's logo and accused Paytm of "slavishly
adopting the two-tone blue colour scheme of its [PayPal's] logo

PayPal went on to argue that both logos incorporate and begin with the word "Pay" and that
consumers tend to remember the first part of a logo/mark more than subsequent parts and,
accordingly, there would be a "likelihood of confusion" between the PayPal logo/mark and the
Paytm logo/mark.
 RESEARCH QUESTION

Whether the claim of paypal of deception about customer is really holds water and
whether it is correct according trademark law?
Whether the shape and design is deceptively similar to paypal ?
Whether the shape mark can be registered under trademark law ?

HYPOTHESIS

Applying for the registration of such an unconventional mark is no more an exception and if the
statutory implications are complied with, shape marks have been granted registration by the
Indian Trademark registry. Though, in recent years, trade mark registries and courts have been
burdened with applications for silhouettes, shapes, scents, textures, short cartoons, single
colours, body movements etc. as trademarks. This invasion of the unconventional trademark is
due to the abstract nature of the legal definition of a trademark. On one hand the trade mark law
has embraced an open- ended definition that emphasis the functional, rather than the ontological
status of a mark. Any mark which does the communicative work of a trade mark, distinguishing
goods or services on the basis of trade origin, can be registered as one.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher had gone through books, web and articles so this work is purely of doctrinal form.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEB SOURCES:

https://spicyip.com/2016/08/its-all-about-the-shape-design-infringement-and-passing-
off.html
https://spicyip.com/2011/05/bombay-hc-on-passing-off-shape-of-vodka.html
http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/207288/Trademark/Shape+Of+A+Bottle+Under+Trade
mark+Scanner
http://trademarklawindia.blogspot.in/2011/12/shapes-as-trademarks.html

BOOKS REFERRED:

Cornish and Llewelyn, Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trademark and Allied
Rights, Sixth Edition, Sweet and Maxwell, London.
N.Stephan Kinsella and Teresa C. Tucker, Trademark practice and Forms.
V.K. Ahuja, Law Relating to Intellectual Property Rights.