During this week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Sunidhi Bansal, Associate, lead an interesting discussion on whether the IP regime in India needs to change to accommodate the evolution of a new kind of social media influencer, viz. the virtual influencer. The session saw active discussion on who or what constitutes a virtual influencer, the ensuing liability concerns, and IP rights in content created by such influencers.

ALG’s Dishti Titus, conducted three sessions in the Virtual School for Intellectual Property organized by FICCI in association with CIPAM from February 26 – March 12, 2021. Her sessions covered – ‘Understanding the Procedure of Trademark Opposition in India’, ‘Geographical Indications – Procedure of GI Registration in India’ and ‘Basic Concepts of Trade Secrets – What is a Trade Secret & Some Famous Examples’.  

A Legal Issues Seminar’ (LIS) was conducted by Krithika Muthuraman, Associate, on issues such as related to Social Media & Networking, Gaming and IP in Artificial Intelligence.

The seminar particularly touched upon whether Governmental Orders for takedown of posts/accounts on social media are violative of the freedom of speech and expression, whether Online Fantasy Sports are prohibited as amounting to “gambling” and whether AI generated ‘Deepfakes’ would be entitled to copyright protection. The session concluded with an engaging discussion on the position of fantasy sports vis-à-vis agreements by way of wager and on the current compliance obligations of Social Media Intermediaries with Governmental Orders.

The presentation can be accessed here.

During this week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Shreya Kunwar, Trainee Associate, lead a interesting and topical discussion on the concept of Intellectual Property Pools and their significance during a pandemic. The session saw active discussion on the impact of IP pools on creativity, access to voluntary pools and whether IP rights should be enforced (at all) during a pandemic.

ALG Associate Sneha Tandon hosted a virtual Guest Interaction Session (GIS) with Mr. R. A. Tiwari, Former Deputy Registrar, Trademarks & Geographical Indications, Trademark Registry, Mumbai. The session was an interactive and insightful one as Mr. Tiwari discussed practical issues and aspects pertaining to trademark practice and procedures. More particularly, he shared with us his thoughts on questions posed by the team on the Madrid Protocol, COVID- 19 related deadlines suspension, well-known Trademark and various other practical do’s and dont’s. We are grateful to Mr. Tiwari for interacting with us. It was a pleasure to learn from his rich experience of over 25 years at the Trademark Registry.