FINAL REPORT

VI SEMESTER

BA.LLB. (hons.)

REPORT OF INTERNSGIP WITH:

RISHIT BHATT & CO.
AS PART OF INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME
FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2017-18

SUBMITTED BY:
ANUKRATI JAIN
15bal017

Table of Content

Sr. No Subject Page No

1. Preface 3

1
2. Acknowledgement 4
3. Certificate 5
4. List of abbreviations 6
5. Executive Summary 7
6. Brief About Law Firm 10
7. Introduction 11
8. Project/Cases/Matters assisted/ undertaken/ 12
observed during the internship

9. Outcome of your learning and Relevant cases and 12

laws referred and during the internship relating to
the matters and cases

10. Conclusion 12
11. Appendix- Worksheet 13

Preface

2
This report is an outcome of the four weeks Internship programme of Institute of
law, Nirma University for the students of VI semester. The main constituents are
the report on fieldwork carried out during the internship, the research on related
issues/cases/matter and the weekly report of my work. I have tried my best to do
justice with my activities and put it in black and white with the same effort as I did
it during the internship.

___________________

Date: Name & Signature of Trainee

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 Acknowledgement

I acknowledge with deep respect the help of all known and unknown factors that helped me
in the successful completion of my Internship.

This internship opportunity that I had with Rishit Bhatt & Co. firm was a great chance for
learning and my development as a law student. I thak Rishit Bhatt for accepting me as an
internee and allowing me to work under his guidance and supervision.

At this juncture, I consider myself a very lucky individual and would also like to thank my
Director, Dr. Purvi Pokhariyal, Institute of Law, Nirma University, for providing me with an
opportunity to be a part of this internship.

I express my deepest gratitude to the junior lawyers, for giving necessary advices and
guidance and arranging all facilities to make it easier for me to learn. It does not go without
mentioning the help of all other staff and non-staff workers who made my stay amicable and
friendly.

Lastly, I thank my co-internees who, through their better understanding of things, helped me
in the successful completion of my assignments. I appreciate their patience, perseverance and
continuous hard work they put in and gave me the best possible.

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Certificate

5
 List of Abbreviations

Abbreviation Full Form

TMA Trademarks Act,1999
CPC The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
IPRS Indian Performing Rights Society
U/S Under Section
v. Versus

6
 Executive Summary
Rishit Bhatt & Co. is the independent unit of the firm Probity Legal and it is a premier IPR
firm dealing with matters mainly relating to Trademarks Act. The main tasks during the
internship was to research on law points relating to the matters that the firm was dealing with,
the interns were occasionally taken to the Trademark registry also. In the registry we were able
to observe as to how the filing of trademarks is done. On the first day I was also made aware
of the website or the Intellectual Property and how to search for the class in which a product
or a service falls or a public search for the already existing trademarks with a certain name in
a certain class of product or services. We were sometimes asked to research a topic and make
a report on it and the landmark judgements on that topic.

 WORK DONE
On the first day of my internship I was asked to draft an affidavit which was to be submitted to
the passport authorities. The issue was that our client wanted to apply for a Visa to visit
America, so he had to give a declaration as the name mentioned in the birth certificate of the
client was different for the name mentioned in all the other documents including passport. The
affidavit was to be submitted according to the Annexure E that is provided by the passport
authorities. For the first few days of my internship I was working on an objection as to a
Trademark “ARBIT” which was deceptively similar to the trademark “ORBIT” which is held
by the firm’s client Vishwakarma Industries. Both the companies are selling their product in
the southern states of India, and both the trademarks are phonetically similar, so there were
high chances of creation of confusion in the minds of the buyers, and this way the consumers
were likely to be deceived.

In the same week working on the above mentioned case I researched on the phonetically similar
trademarks, and read a few cases on the above mentioned subject. I was made aware about the
process involved in the registration of the trademark. I was also made aware as to what the
process to register the trademark online is and what the annexures that have to be uploaded for
the same. Occasionally I was given the work to search for the already existing wordmarks or
device marks similar or identical to the trademark which a client is willing to register.

In the second week I mostly worked on the registration of the trademark “Dentoshine” for the
product toothpaste manufactured by our client. The registrar of the trademark initially rejected
our application of registration of the trademark “dentoshine” for the clients product saying that

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it is a descriptive term. I was assigned the task to research for the above mentioned matter as
we have to state that dentoshine may be a suggestive term but it was not a descriptive term, and
since our client has been using the trademark from a long period of time, it has already acquired
distinctiveness as it is very popular among the public. I researched and read certain judgements
on descriptive trademarks.

Some of the days I was provide with books and judgements on trademark to read, and Sir was
kind enough to address any doubt that I had during this process whenever he got time from his
busy schedule. I was also asked to read and make briefs of the judgements which Sir needed
for his cases. Some of the cases that I was asked to make brief were Dabur India Ltd. V. Real
drinks Pvt. Ltd.1This case was regarding descriptive trademark, it discussed as to what can be
considered a descriptive trademark and when can a descriptive term be registered as trademark.
Another case that I was asked to make a brief was on the same line and the name of the case
was Glaxosmithkline Pharma Ltd. V. Hindustan Medibiotic2.

Another matter that I was involved during the course of my internship was that of the
application of rectification that was filed by the opposite party in relation to the registration of
our client’s trademark “GALAXY” for its product laminates. The application was filed by the
party which also had the registered trademark “GALAXY” for its plywood and other related
products of the same class.

 LAWS LEARNED
1. Trademarks Act, 1999
2. Copyright Act, 1957
3. The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

Since the firm mainly dealt in IP matters, I read the above three mentioned acts, my final report
deals in detail with the kind of work the firms deal in, the environment of the firm and the kind
of work I was allotted. The final report also provides my experience working in the firm, the
things that I have learned and observed during the course of my internship in the firm. The
research work that I have done is also mentioned in the final report. It was a very enriching
experience for me as I interned in an IP Firm for the first time. I got to know what kind of work
is done in IP Firms, how does the registry for trademark works. Moreover, I got to know about

1
CS (OS) No. 1812 of 2012
2
CS (OS) No. 336 of 2005

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the scope of this profession. I chose an IP firm for this semester as I was fascinated with
intellectual property right as a subject and therefore wanted to know more about its practice,
this internship helped me a lot in this respect. Apart from the acts dealing with intellectual
property rights, I researched on section 20 of the Code of civil procedure,1908 in respect of the
jurisdiction of the civil court in the matters of passing off of the trademarks.

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 A Brief about the Law Firm
Rishit Bhatt & CO. is a newly formed IP Firm by Advocate Rishit Bhatt who has
been working in the field for around 10 years and was a partner at the leading law
firm Nanavati Associates. Rishit bhatt & Co. is basically the IP department of the
bigger firm Probity Legal. The Firm Probity Legal also deals with Real estate as
well as other Civil matters. There are eight associates and three Patners in the firm.
There were three associates working in the IP department. The firm deals with all
the matters relating to Intellectual Property Right (Patent, Trademark, Copyright,
Geographical Indications), but they mostly work in trademarks.

The firm had a conducive environment for learning and discussions, the associates
were also very friendly and approachable, they were always ready to address any
type of doubt that may arise. The office is also located at a prime location and the
firm has known company as their client, hence working with them became more
interesting as we were working for known brands. I was also taken to the
Trademark registry occasionally which was a new experience for me as I had never
been to the registry before. This helped me understand the working of the court.

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 Introduction

My internship at Rishit Bhatt & Co. started from 7th of June. It was my first internship related
to Intellectual Property rights. Rishit Bhatt & Co. is firm based in Ahmedabad whose major
practice area is Intellectual Property Rights. Ms Tahira Khan was the Senior Associate of the
Firm. He was in charge of interns. Hard work is duly respected in . On the first day you begin
by meeting the team and the work is assigned to each and every individual. All the formalities
are completed on the first day, including signing of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and
all the documents related to the commencement of the internship. Once the formalities are
completed, the work is assigned and accordingly you start working on the assignments. At the
first day of the internship I was given a research work for the matter on which currently one of
the associate was working and therefore she made be understand exactly what was I expected
to do, I was also asked to draft an affidavit for the passport annexure for a client all by myself
aso as to see my drafting skills. One of the topic on which I majorly researched was for the
matter in which the registration of Galaxy laminates was challenged. The rights relating to
trade mark mostly arise out of a regular use of a sign or to maintain exclusive rights over a
particular sign, but there should be no trademark objections on that sign.

The International (Nice) Classification of Goods and Services have classified different goods
and services into 45 Trademark Classes. The objective of the classification is to specify the
limit of, rights available by specifying the goods and services that are covered by trademark
and hence unify the classification of trademark around the world.

Project/Cases/Matters assisted/ undertaken/ observed

during the internship

Extensive work was done on the matters related to trademarks, the following matters were dealt by me
during the course of internship:

1. Vishwakarma Industries “ARBIT”

The matter was relating to the trademark ARBIT which was a registered trademark of
our clients and one company started selling the same class of products with the name
ORBIT in the same region i.e. the southern parts of India, and the pronunciation of both

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 the words in that region is the same. The firm was challenging the registration of the
trademark “ORBIT” by the other party as they were using deceptively similar mark so
as to deceive the consumers. Both the words were phonetically identical and therefore
the research was to find such cases were such words have been refused to grant
registration in the same region. One landmark judgement that I read in this regard was
the Neon Lab Case.

2. DENTOSHINE TOOTHPASTE
Dentoshine is a toothpaste made for children that was being used by our client since
2008, and hence they applied for its registration, but the application for registration was
rejected by the registrar. Here the research was relating to the suggestive trademark and
descriptive trademark and when they can be registered and granted rights.

3. GALAXY LAMINATES
This case was a very interesting one, as here both the parties had an identical registered
trademark for similar class of products, still the other party filed a suit for infringement
and passing off. Since passing off is a common law remedy the party can take this
course only under section 20 of CPC. For this matter I researched extensively on
section 28(3) of the trademarks act as well as section 20 of CPC. I also learned section
62 of the Copyright act and section 134 of TMA.

4. I was also asked to make a brief on IPRS v. Sanjay Dalia and other judgements that
came subsequently that dealt with the same issue.

Outcome of the Learning and Observations during the

Internship

During the period of my internship I mainly dealt with Trademark matters and therefore read
Trademark Act, 1999. I also got to draft a few documents so that is something new that I
learned. Below I have provided the brief summary of the trademark law and the type of
trademarks based upon there capability of being registered.

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There are five different categories of trademarks in the spectrum of trademark distinctiveness,
it is also called Abercrombie classification, as it evolved in the case Abercrombie and Fitch
Co. v. Hunting World, Inc., 537 F.2d 4(2d Cir. N.Y. 1976). This spectrum is in ascending order
from least to most distinctive. The demarcation of these categories however is not that clear,
the lines distinguishing one category from another are sometimes unclear. Moreover,
difficulties may arise because a term that is in one category for a particular product may be in
quite a different one for another. This happens when a term shifts from one category to another
in light of differences in usage through time or when a term may have one meaning to one
group of users and a different one to others or when the same term may be put to different uses
with respect to a single product. Generic words are never afforded any trade mark protection.3
It is well established that registration for a trademark cannot be refused on the grounds of
similarity or indistinctiveness if it has acquired a distinctive character due to its regular use in
the market which made it a well-known trademark.
To come to a conclusion that a trademark has acquired an amount of distinctiveness, these are
the things which have to be seen through evidences:
1. Does the mark remind the customers of a specific product or a service, i.e. whether the
customers relate that mark to a trade or origin?
2. Another question that needs to be considered is that whether the mark has now acquired
satisfactory distinct character so as to become a trademark? The use of mark does not
automatically translate into distinctiveness. In another important case that of W. and
Sharpe Ltd. v. Solomon Bros. Ltd. (Classic case), it was held by Kennedy LJ that the
word “classic” is incapable of being treated as a acquired or adapted to distinguish or
as having a secondary meaning as indicating only the goods of the party who has
applied for the trademark.4

Relevant Cases And Laws Referred And Researched During The

Internship Relating To The Matters And Cases
RELEVANT LAWS:

1. Trademark Act, 1999 and Rules, 2017.

3
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World Inc., 537 F.2d 4 (2 nd Cir. 1976)
4
(1915)84 LJ Ch 290

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 2. Patent Act, 2005

3. Copyright Act, 1957

4. The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

CASELAWS:

1. IPRS v. Sanjay Dalia C.A. No.4912/2015 @ SLP [C] No.8253/2013

2. Cadila healthcare v. Gujarat Co-operative milk marketing federation FAO (OS) No.
62/2008

Conclusion

I found this internship a successful one. It happens many times in internships that you don’t
get work neither they teach you anything as the associates are so busy and also there are so
many interns that even interaction with the associates gets very difficult , but in this internship
I was the only one interning in the month of June and there were less associates in the firm so
I was given a lot of work and I was able to learn a lot since Sir discussed many cases me and
told me as to how research for a particular matter. This internship presented me an opportunity
to work with a firm which deals with IPR related matters and know about its functioning. The
work is primarily research and drafting oriented, occasional court and various offices visits. So
we worked on various Geographical and Trademark Applications. Sometimes, we met the
clients when they came to office and contacted them through e-mails and phone calls.

Theoretical law is something I also study in classes thus the major aspects which made our
internship experience so interesting and full of insight were the knowledge about the practical
aspects of case proceeding and working of court that we learned by observing various cases
and arguments which we attended told us about the skills a lawyer need.

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This internship experience was very enriching I was able to expose myself to the ground
realities of the profession of IP Attorney. Also the whole experience allowed me to consider IP
litigation as option as my future profession.

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 WORKSHEET
NIRMA UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF LAW
INTERNSHIP COMMITTEE

LAW FIRM INTERNSHIP

Name of the Student : Anukrati Jain

Name of the Institution : Rishit Bhatt & Co.

Institution’s Address : 602, Iscon Elegance, Near Shapath-V,

Prahladnagar, S.G. Highway, Ahmedabad
:

Advocate Rishit Bhatt

Name of Supervisor

Email
rb@rishitbhatt.com

Phone/Mobile No. 917948981155

Period: : From 7/6/18 to 30/6/18

Sr. No. Work done

Week 1  Orientation at the law firm.
 Drafted affidavit for the Visa according to Annexure E specified by the
passport authorities.

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  Visit Trademark registry for the submission of application for registration.
 Researched for the ARBIT Trademark.

Week 2  Drafted an amendment application to be filed in the matter of dentoshine.

 Researched on suggestive as well as descriptive trademark.
 Made Summary for the caselaws for suggestive and descriptive trademarks.
 Learned about the procedure of registration of the trademark.
Week 3  Researched for the Galaxy matter.

 Extensive research on Section 62 of Copyright Act, section 134 of TMA and

section 20 of CPC.

 Studied the Judicial Trend of jurisdiction of Civil Court in IPR matters

starting from IPRS v. Sanjay Daliya.

Week 4  Studied Deceptive similarity and the case of Cadilla pharmaceuticals v.

Gujarat Co-operative Society.

 Researched for the topic- Implication of IP laws on pharmaceutical

industries.

Signature of Supervisor Signature of Student

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