We are a management consultancy organization and provide training and consultancy on business management.
One of the organization wants to use internationally known brands in Garment to use on their products as they are not yet available in India and they are not even registered in India.
They want to know Can they do it as per law ?
If not what is possible action govenment can take on them (in India) or original company, which is not having any presence in India will not know even after years that his brand is used., can take action.
They want to do it but want to know the risk involved.
Note: I have used my real business id to login this forum so that you can reach me.
Using International brands in India
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isohelpline
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Using International brands in India
www.isohelpline.com for training and exams on ISO standards
When you say 'brands' I assume you mean that this Indian company wants to use the name and / or logo of another company on its own products. This would be seen as a breach of several international agreements covering not only copyright but also what is known as 'passing off''.
As befits a major emerging economy, India has signed the Berne Conventions, the Universal Copyright Conventions and the TRIPS agreement and so I assume that their domestic law will reflect this and allow infringement of copyright to be pursued through the courts, eiither by the state prosecutors in the criminal courts or by the company alleging infringement via the civil courts. As the tort of passing off was established a very long time ago, and the Indian legal system is to a large extent based on the British legal system prior to 1948, I would expect that Indian law also recognises this tort. But I'm afraid I have absolutely no knowledge of the day to day working of the Indian legal system.
You mention that the brand (by which I take it you mean the trademark) concerned has not been registered in Indian. This certainly makes it more difficult for the original company to take action over any ttrademark infringement but the TRIPS agreement, which India has signed, does require the signatory nations to provide suitable domestic law to protect copyright, trademarks and various other forms of intellectual property. Without knowing the exact text of any Indian law on this subject it is hard to comment on how this might work in practice. You or the company that wishes to do this, might be better to find a website that deals specifically with Indian law, or better still, since this is a business matter, consult an Indian lawyer. The situation would be much clearer if India had signed the Madrid treaty which is the primary international agreement on the protection of trademarks and set up a system for the reciprocal registration of trademarks between the member states.
You can find out more about all the treaties/agreements I have mentioned in Wikipedia.
As befits a major emerging economy, India has signed the Berne Conventions, the Universal Copyright Conventions and the TRIPS agreement and so I assume that their domestic law will reflect this and allow infringement of copyright to be pursued through the courts, eiither by the state prosecutors in the criminal courts or by the company alleging infringement via the civil courts. As the tort of passing off was established a very long time ago, and the Indian legal system is to a large extent based on the British legal system prior to 1948, I would expect that Indian law also recognises this tort. But I'm afraid I have absolutely no knowledge of the day to day working of the Indian legal system.
You mention that the brand (by which I take it you mean the trademark) concerned has not been registered in Indian. This certainly makes it more difficult for the original company to take action over any ttrademark infringement but the TRIPS agreement, which India has signed, does require the signatory nations to provide suitable domestic law to protect copyright, trademarks and various other forms of intellectual property. Without knowing the exact text of any Indian law on this subject it is hard to comment on how this might work in practice. You or the company that wishes to do this, might be better to find a website that deals specifically with Indian law, or better still, since this is a business matter, consult an Indian lawyer. The situation would be much clearer if India had signed the Madrid treaty which is the primary international agreement on the protection of trademarks and set up a system for the reciprocal registration of trademarks between the member states.
You can find out more about all the treaties/agreements I have mentioned in Wikipedia.
Just to update the OP and any others who are interested in Indian IP matters, there is now a blog on the subject: http://www.sinapseblog.com/