Trademark Law Declared by the Supreme Court of India in Twenty-First Century (2000–2009) — I

Abstract

The Parliament of India makes, amends, and unmakes law. The Supreme Court of India (hereinafter, the Supreme Court),
under Article 141 of the Constitution of India, declares the law and makes and unmakes the law. These constitutional powers of
two branches are related but separate. The Supreme Court in the first decade of 21st century has delivered 23 decisions on the
trademark law. On an average, the Supreme Court has decided 2.3 (point three) trademark cases in a year; or one trademark
case in 158.82 (point eight two) days or in .43 (point four three) years. A review of reported 21st century decisions reveals that
the Court has: (i) declared trademark law in 17 decisions; (ii) not only interpreted the provisions of the statutes but has also
constructed them; (iii) not declared anything on the constitutionality of the trademark statutes as no such question of
constitutionality was brought before it; (iv) delivered all the decisions unanimously as no dissenting or concurring judgment is
reported; and (v) decided maximum number of cases by Division Bench (21) and remaining 2 cases by Full Bench. It is also
observed that no sitting or acting Chief Justices of India was on the Bench in any of the cases. Paper proceeds with the same
argument and method as developed in the first four papers on patent law, copyright law, design law and trademark law in
twentieth-century published under the theme ‘IP Laws Declared by the Supreme Court’. This Paper seeks to cull out the
principles of trademark law as declared by the Supreme Court in the first decade of the twenty-first century.