India: Intellectual Property

As India transitions from the successful Production Linked Incentive (PLI) era into a more mature industrial phase, the Union Cabinet has approved the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS).

The intersection of trademark law and digital advertising has long been a contested frontier. One of its most persistent flashpoints concerns the practice of keyword advertising, where a business pays a search engine to display its advertisement when a user searches for a competitor’s brand name. In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court, in Hindware Ltd. v. Grohe India Pvt. Ltd. & Ors., has provided what is, to date, India’s most definitive judicial answer to the question: does selling a registered trademark as a search keyword amount to trademark infringement, and can the search engine itself be held liable?

National security has been a cornerstone of India’s patent legislation since its inception. Section 4 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, exemplifies this priority by imposing an absolute bar on patenting inventions related to atomic energy. This prohibition has historically reflected the government’s exclusive control over nuclear technology and the strategic sensitivity associated with atomic energy. However, India’s evolving clean-energy objectives are driving a significant policy transformation.