Sheja Ehtesham and Ashwani Balayan from ALG have been ranked amongst India’s top Intellectual Property Lawyers of 2021 by Asian Legal Business, a Thomson Reuters publication.

The list spotlights top IP lawyers who have worked on significant matters and consistently delivered results.

The full list is available at https://www.legalbusinessonline.com/sites/default/files/e-magazines/ALB-INDIA-NOVDEC-2021/viewer/desktop/index.html?doc=B9F9D11D4438A232D589E1CDD63D29E4#page/2

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar-General IP’ (LIS-GIP) was conducted by Hardik Choudhary, Associate, on “Can an Unauthorized Reseller/Distributor Claim Legitimate Interests in a Domain Name?”. The seminar delved into the mandatory requirements of a UDRP complaint and an in-depth discussion of the requirement for the complainant to prove lack of rights/ legitimate interests in a domain name. The seminar specifically looked into various UDRP Panel decisions whereby unauthorized resellers/distributors were held to have legitimate interests in a domain name based on certain conditions. The session concluded with interesting questions from the team on the rights of an authorized reseller viz-a-viz unauthorized reseller.

The presentation can be accessed here.

During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Aishwarya Pande, Associate, led a discussion on whether IP policies and enforcement in the virtual world could be detrimental to the creative endeavours of independent artists. The session witnessed an engrossing discussion on how virtual/augmented reality platforms are becoming increasingly popular among the artists’ community. The session explored the benefits of ease of accessibility and increased visibility for artists in virtual space, vis-à-vis the growing instances of IP infringement in virtual space. The session concluded with some interesting exchange of views on whether aggressive enforcement strategies to curb infringement in virtual space would affect creativity of artists.

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar-General IP’ (LIS-GIP) was conducted by Sannidhi Mahapatra, Associate, on “Examples of Party(ies) to Different Types of IP Law Suits that are Proper but not Necessary ”. The seminar delved into the concepts of ‘necessary’ and ‘proper’ parties in a suit and explored the different circumstances that warrant impleadment of a proper party, as well as the consequence of non-joinder of such parties to a lawsuit. The seminar specifically looked into the impleadmeant of proper parties through various judicial pronouncements. The session concluded with an interesting discussion on whether a defendant would be able to implead parties as a matter of right.

The presentation can be accessed here.

During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Samreen Iboo Sait, Associate, led a discussion on whether the metaverse would change IP policies adopted by brands. The session witnessed an engrossing discussion on the interface of IP with the metaverse. The session explored possible reasons for brands to subscribe to the metaverse ecosystem and the implications it would have on their existing IP enforcement policies. The session concluded with some interesting exchange of views on the ways we can modify existing policies and how brands could adapt to the uncharted multi-metaverse ecosystem.