Image from here
In light of the COVID-19 related advisories (see all, here) from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks, has issued the following notification today:
“In view of advisory issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India and the
concerned raised by stakeholders in this regard, all hearings relating to trademarks matters scheduled between 17/03/2020 to 15/04/2020 have been adjourned and these cases will be rescheduled in due course of time.
It may further be noted that hearing scheduled after 15 April, 2020 will remain as it is.”
On 13th March, the IPAB has also posted a similar notice:
“In view of the travel advisory issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare,
Govt. of India, Hon’ble Chairman directed to reschedule the hearing fixed on 16.03.2020
& 17.03.2020 at Chennai. Accordingly the cases listed on 16.03.2020 are reposted to
07.04.2020 & cases listed on 17.03.2020 are reposted to 08.04.2020. For further details
please visit our Website https://www.ipab.gov.in “
On March 10th, the Registrar of Trade Marks and GIs had also put out a notification that Opposition cases fixed for 12/03/2020 have been adjourned to 30/03/2020 due to administrative reasons.
How Courts are handling it:
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has limited its functioning, and also taken other precautions such as thermal screening and hand sanitiser stations (see here for the Supreme Court’s circular, and here for LiveLaw’s report). The SC also is taking measures to reduce the ‘people to people’ contact, by introducing video conferencing for court proceedings, e-filings, etc. See more in LiveLaw’s report here.
Several High Courts including the Delhi High Court, the Bombay High Court , the High Court of Karnataka, have also put out notices regarding the restricted functioning they will proceed with for now.