INDIA: Full Bench Upholds Power of Courts to Examine Validity of Trademark Registration at Interim Stage for Limited Purposes

  In a recent decision of December 23, 2014, the Full Bench of the Bombay High Court, while adjudicating two separate matters—Lupin Ltd. v. Johnson & Johnson and Shakti Bhog Foods Limited v. Parle Products Private Limited—delivered a combined judgment settling the contradictory standards of various High Courts of India. The issue at hand was the power of civil courts to question the validity of registration of a plaintiff’s trademark at an interlocutory stage when the defendant takes up the