Beyond The Product, The Brand

The intellectual property law was established to protect the cretors an owners against the competitive market and to give certain uniqueness to the product in the market which would help the products to get a well-deserved recognition in the market helping them to gain popularity as most of the times the costumers choose the products based on the name of he brand. To make this name in the market the companies work deligently to gain the trust In the market. The trademarks being one of the intellectual property helps the company to build its brand by providing exclusive rights to a unique name or the symbol, which helps the company to distinguish itself from the other competitors in the market and to foster the brand recognition and customer trust. The history of Trademark traces back to the ancient times when merchants were using signs or marks in trade to distinguish their products. Although the use of trademarks dates back to the thousands of year, however the exact date or year of its origin cannot be coined, but some of the earliest identification of marks dates from the prehistory. For instance, the Lasccaux cave paintings in France shows bulls drawings with marks on them. It is believed by many experts that the people were using personal marks to claim ownership of their livestock, which was about 15,000 years ago. But it was only during the middle ages when the trade flourished the use of the signs to distinguish the goods enhanced. Trademark is important in India because it protects the unique brand identity, helps in preventing confusion among the consumers and also it grants the exclusive legal rights to the companies to use the mark. If there is any kind of risk to the name of the company in the market for instance, if someone uses the name or the symbol of the company to sell their products in the market then the company whose rights are getting infringed can challenge it appropriately in the court and can ask for the relief in accordance. Recently there was an appeal before the Delhi High Court by the registered owner of the trademark India Gate. India gate is a famous India Brand known for selling good quality of rice. It has been using this mark since 1993. The appeal arose aginst the judgement given by the division bench of C Hari Shankar and Ajay Digpaul. The respondant in this case was a company dealing with rice under the name bharat gate. The suit was filled before the commercial court seeking a permanent and mandatory injunction because the appellant believed that the name used by therespondent directly infringes the name used by the appealant. The court held that the respondent used Bharat gate as its trademark to use the Goodwill of an already established rice company name as India gate. The contention of the respondent was that there is no phonetic similarity between India gate and Bharat gate and that the fact that there are difference in colour and design between the Apple ends and the respondents mark mitigate the possibility of confusion among the customers. It also contended that the image of India gate was not prominent on his pack of BHARAT GATE. All the contention given by the respondent was set a side by the honorable court on the grounds that altho the names were different all those are designs were different but still the name India gate and Bharat gate they were politically same which which is likely to put confusion about the name in the mind of the customers there by harming the hard earned Goodwill setup by the appellant. We can see from the judgement and also as we discussed above that the intellectual property is a powerful weapon against the competitors in the market. A company without intellectual property would be a similar to a toothless tiger. Itself as a valuable businesses sent enhancing brand recognition customers loyalty and overall market credibility a registered trademark provides nationwide legal protection against infringment went and helps to build trust and reputation in the competitive market all around the world.

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