Intellectual Property

TRADEMARK SQUATTING: A GROWING MENACE TO BRAND OWNERS

INTRODUCTION In the instant article, we will delve into the intricate tactics employed by unscrupulous entities who are ready to engage in trademark squatting, infringement, and the nefarious hijacking of the rights of the original users and adaptors of a trademark. The present article will explore various ways through which these unscrupulous entities try to obtain a priority over the original users and also discover effective strategies to not only overcome these entities but also take appropriate legal action against them. A person stealing the idea and intellectual property of someone else. Intellectual Property Theft The genesis of this article can be traced back to a multitude of cases handled by the author’s organization wherein the infringers either asserted themselves to be the originator of the trademark they copied and falsely claimed an earlier date of use which is prior to the actual owner in order to hijack and secure registration. Some even resorted to initiating baseless legal proceedings against the true owners of the mark, causing unwarranted harassment and legal challenges. Since this article was created out of the practical experiences, the author will keep updating this article to incorporate new issues and their possible solutions. SQUATTING, A BRIEF OVERVIEW Squatting is a term generally referred to the action of occupying a right or a property upon which the Squatter (the unscrupulous person squatting) has no right or claim. In reference to Intellectual Property, specifically trademarks, Squatting refers to hijacking or fraudulently filing applications and trying to obtain registration by a third-party who is not actually the originator or actual owner of trademark who is known as the Squatter, whereby the said squatter is aware about the existence of the original mark and tries to take advantage of the absence of the original owner in a particular market or domain. In short, trademark squatting is the practice of securing trademark registration, not with the intend to use it in commerce, but with the intent to profit by selling or leveraging them to the rightful and legitimate owners of those trademarks. Squatters certainly create huge issues for Multi-National Corporations (MNC) due to the cross-border reputation attained by their various famous marks coupled with the fact that these MNCs cannot be present in every market where the goods bearing their trademark are being sold. Squatters generally keep track of famous trademarks of companies which do not exist in a particular territory, taking advantage of which, the squatter may file trademarks and obtain registration making it extremely hard for the originator to actually assert its rights in that particular country and may have to fight out a legal battle with the squatter costing valuable time, money and resources. Further, with the passage of time, the squatting techniques have only gotten more complicated and much harder to detect, trace and combat. As a result, trademark owners belonging to the same country, market or domain may also face issues regarding squatting of trademarks either directly i.e. the Squatter filing an application falsely claiming prior date of use than the actual owner or indirectly i.e. Squatter filing frivolous opposition/ rectification proceedings against the pre-existing trademarks […]