Articles

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs published the draft amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 on 21 June 2021 (‘Draft Rules’). The Draft Rules seek to introduce several new concepts, restrict certain business practices of e-commerce entities and impose numerous obligations on e-commerce entities operating in India.

27 July 2021

The likelihood of confusion or deception amongst the consuming public is a sine qua non element in an action for infringement or passing off. There are various parameters that are taken into consideration while assessing the degree of likelihood of confusion between two trademarks, such as the goods and services under the disputing marks, the class of consumer, and the trade channels involved, inter alia.

24 July 2021

The transfer of immovable property by land owners under mechanism of Joint development, Agreement (‘JDA’) has evolved as a preferred mode of transacting, especially in urban areas where the land owners do not have the time or expertise to develop the land and market the property on their own. They, therefore, enter into an arrangement for mutual benefit with a developer for developing and marketing the land parcels to various buyers.

22 July 2021

The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2017 (‘Code’) was, inter alia, enacted for the resolution or liquidation of companies defaulting on their debts. These debts may include claims subject to an arbitration or sums determined in the form of an award. In the present article, we identify some potential scenarios where parties to an arbitration agreement must be conscious of the interplay between arbitration and the Code.

21 July 2021

The Government of India through its Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, in exercise of its powers conferred under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 had notified the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 (‘E-commerce Rules’). The Government has now, on 21 June 2021, proposed certain amendments in the E-commerce Rules and is receiving comments or suggestions from the stakeholders.

14 July 2021

The provisions relating to conduct of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations in India are contained in the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and the Customs Tariff (Identification, Assessment and Collection of Anti-Dumping Duty on Dumped Articles and for Determination of Injury) Rules, 1995 (‘AD Rules’) and the Customs Tariff (Identification, Assessment and Collection of Countervailing Duty on Subsidized Articles and for Determination of Injury) Rules, 1995 (‘CVD Rules’) made therein under.

1 July 2021

GST as a law has been very dynamic with amendments happening day in and day out as the legislature and the subjects learn from implementing the law to the practical aspects of the business. One of the recent amendments to the law is the amendment to sub-section (4) to Section 16 of the Central Goods & Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘CGST Act’) which was made effective from 1 January 2021.

30 June 2021

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (‘IPAB’) in an order dated 29 September 2020 allowed the appeal filed by Novartis AG (‘Appellant’) challenging the revocation of Indian Patent No. 276026 (IN’026) by the Deputy Controller of Patents & Designs, New Delhi (‘Respondent No. 2’) following post-grant opposition proceedings initiated by Natco Pharma Limited (‘Respondent No. 3’), and set aside the revocation order (‘impugned order’) as being ‘devoid of merit’.

21 June 2021

It is a settled principle statutorily that the income tax paid by a taxpayer on its income is not allowed as a deductible expenditure under the provisions of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 (‘Act’). The term ‘income-tax’ has not been defined under the provisions of the Act, however, the term ‘tax’ has been defined to mean income-tax chargeable under the provisions of the Act. Section 4 of the Act creates a charge of tax on the total income of the previous year of a person.

16 June 2021

Though the primary objective of Corporate Social Responsibility (‘CSR’) was not slated to be to bridge resource gap for the Government, the second wave of the pandemic Covid-19 has once again brought back into light the participation of Corporate India in supplementing the efforts of the Government.

15 June 2021

Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (‘Act’) provides for an appeal against orders passed under Sections 9, 34, 16 and 17 of the Act. The Act does not provide any specific limitation for filing such appeals, however, Section 43 of the Act provides that the Limitation Act, 1963 (‘Limitation Act’) shall apply to arbitrations as it applies to proceedings in Court.

15 June 2021

On 7 May 2021, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (‘DGTR’) concluded the anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of ‘Plain Medium Density Fibre Board having thickness 6mm and above’ (‘subject goods’) produced by Kim Tin MDF Joint Stock Company, Vietnam (‘Kim Tin’) by terminating the investigation. Though the termination of this investigation is not unusual, the reasons for the termination of the investigation are interesting.

1 June 2021

The NCLAT, in its recent decision in Union of India v. Vijaykumar V Iyer, has arguably created a new class of creditors, not previously known to the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (‘IBC’). The Appellate Tribunal effectively found that licenses granted by the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India (‘DoT’) to private players for the use of spectrum can override provisions of the IBC.

1 June 2021

Implementation of e-way bill system under the Goods and Services Tax regime has been an excruciating exercise for the Government as well as the taxpayers. While Government was initially grappling for timely enforcement of e-way bill system due to inherent constraints in the portal, the taxpayers were finding it difficult to cope up with the frequent amendments in the e-way bill related rules.

25 May 2021

Businesses constantly seek to innovate to obtain an edge over their competition and sometimes this leads to particularly noteworthy innovations that become disruptive forces within the market segment. This allows the innovator to determine their own price for their products and operate independent of the market forces of supply and demand

25 May 2021