Draft Trade Marks Manual 2026: Gaps DPIIT Must Address Before It Goes Final

/ By / Others, Trademark

On August 21, 2026, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIIT) published a Draft Manual on Trade Marks: Practice & Procedure 2026 (Draft Manual) in the Gazette of India, inviting public comments within fifteen days. Running over two hundred pages, the Draft Manual is meant to be the operational rulebook for examiners and registrars and a guide for prospective applicants of a mark. The Draft Manual is an updated version of the 2015 Manual. It has added a

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[Part I] RAM, Routine, and Rights: Looking at the IP Chapter in the EU-India Draft FTA

/ By / Copyright

The Draft India-EU FTA, dubbed the “mother of all deals”, includes a Chapter on Intellectual Property (IP) (Chapter 10), which has sparked concern about outlawing activities that Indian law allows for, such as Digital Archiving or creating temporary copies in RAM while routing web data. While India has not yet published the draft, the EU made it available on 15th September. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently reiterated that the FTA remains on track for finalisation by December 2026, with formal

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Can an Animation Be a Design? Examining India’s Draft GUI and Icon Design Guidelines, 2026

/ By / Design

The Indian Designs Office’s draft GUI Guidelines mark an important step following the Calcutta High Court’s decision in NEC Corporation v. Controller of Patents on the registrability of GUIs. Harshita Bhola writes on the Guidelines, noting that while they are a welcome improvement that could bring greater consistency and predictability to examination practices, the proposed requirement to submit separate representations of individual frames risks overlooking the creative contribution underlying an animation. Harshita Bhola is a 7th-semester B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student

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A Fake Judgment, an AI-Designed Mark and a Missing Declaration: What Do the TMR’s Draft AI Guidelines Actually Regulate?

/ By / Trademark

The draft Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Proceedings before the Trade Marks Registry seek to address the growing concerns around AI-generated fabricated citations and misleading evidence. However, as explained by Kaustub Boidi, the proposed framework leaves important questions unanswered about the Registry’s own verification responsibilities, the treatment of legitimate AI-assisted translations, and whether the prescribed consequences are proportionate to different forms of non-compliance. Kaustub is a final-year law student at SVKM’s NMIMS, Hyderabad. His interests lie in

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Hidden AI Prompts in Petitions: Why Indian Courts Should Take This Up Suo Motu

/ By / Others

As courts increasingly turn to AI tools for legal research and document processing, could hidden instructions embedded in pleadings manipulate the outputs they rely on? In this post, Rohit Pradhan examines the threat of prompt injection in judicial proceedings, distinguishes it from AI hallucinations, and proposes safeguards for e-filing systems and legal accountability in India. Rohit Pradhan is an IP litigator based in Delhi, practising before the Delhi High Court. Hidden AI Prompts in Petitions: Why Indian Courts Should Take

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Can You Trademark Your Way Out of Bad PR? Delhi HC Fines Niva Bupa Re. 1 for Trying

/ By / Trademark

Recently, the Delhi High Court, in Niva Bupa v. Vishal Rattewal imposed Re. 1 in notional costs after finding the plaintiffs’ suit to be a “misuse” of the IPD’s special jurisdiction. In this post, Aryan Agrawal examines whether the failure of a trademark infringement claim is sufficient to constitute such misuse, and whether the Court adequately considered the IPD Rules’ express inclusion of disparagement within its remit. Aryan is an advocate practising before the Delhi High Court and an Associate

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (October 19-October 25)

/ By / Copyright, Design, Patent, Trademark

A quick tidbit on the free online version of Feroz Ali’s treatise on patent law, interesting orders from various High Courts, and exciting national and international IP developments in this week’s SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we’ve missed? Drop a comment and let us know! Highlights of the Week SpicyIP Tidbit: Ali on Patents – A Treatise Built for Reading, Citing and Keeping Up Patent research often means working through lengthy judgments to find the reasoning that matters. Prof. Feroz Ali’s

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SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (26.10.2026)

/ By / Courses & Workshops, Opportunities

Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles. As always, we’ve rounded up a mix of developments, opportunities, and thoughtful reads from across the IP world along with a Bell of the Week that’s well worth revisiting. Bell of the Week: Copyright at 50 – Can the Law Keep Up? Copyright law has always had to contend with a rather difficult question: how do you make rules for creative works when the ways we create, share and use them

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (October 12-October 18)

/ By / Copyright, Drug Regulation, Patent, Trademark

[This Weekly Review is prepared by Kaustub Boidi. Kaustub is a final-year law student at SVKM’s NMIMS, Hyderabad.] Here’s this week’s roundup of IP developments, from posts on the Kerala High Court’s Ribociclib decision, the Delhi HC’s tiered approach to patent appeals in Esteve Pharmaceuticals, the PABS Annex of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, to key judicial decisions and national and international IP updates. Anything we missed out on? Drop a comment below to let us know! Highlights of the Week

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Ali on Patents – A Treatise Built for Reading, Citing and Keeping Up

/ By / Patent

Prof. Feroz Ali has launched Ali on Patents (www.aop.onl), a free, online version of the treatise he first published in 2007. In his launch note on linkedin, he says that everything on the site is either his own words or the words of the court, with no AI-written prose in between. The resource is meant for a wide readership: patent lawyers and agents, in-house counsel, examiners, judges, academics, students and inventors, among others. The site has two kinds of pages:

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