This judgement is very interesting in the background of Maharashtra Dyslexia Association wanting to claim copyright over a popular phrase used for awareness of L.D[Learning Disabilities].Needless to stay that I believe that any one can use the phrase and no one can stop any one from using the phrase “IF I CAN’T LEARN THE WAY YOU TEACH, WILL YOU TEACH ME THE WAY I CAN LEARN ‘Can’t claim copyright over popular phrases’ TRADE MARK INFRINGEMENT CLAIMS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO STILL THE TONGUE OF AN ENTIRE POPULACE, EVEN IN THE SLIGHTEST. GAUTAM PATEL, HC judge MUMBAI: Nobody can have monopoly over popular phrases or expressions, and claims of proprietary rights over such colloquial phrases would eventually lead to choking of the language, the Bombay high court held on Thursday while rejecting a plea seeking a stay on the release of a Marathi film, Lai Bhaari, which stars Riteish Deshmukh. “Trade mark infringement claims cannot be allowed to still the tongue of an entire populace, even in the slightest,” said justice Gautam Patel while rejecting the plea filed by Tech legal Solutions Private Limited, which runs a portal with domain name ‘laibhaari,’ seeking a stay on release of the Marathi film on the ground that the film title was its registered trade mark. The judge found it difficult to accept the firm’s submission that registration of the domain name gave it proprietary rights over the common Marathi phrase across all classes of services, products and range of activities. “The consequence of that submission is far too wide, and far too dangerous,” justice Patel observed. “By extension of that reasoning, over a period of time, the entirety of a language would be choked,” the judge said, adding, “Every title of every work of literature, theatre or cinema, every piece of dialogue in a film would, conceivably, be hit with claims of trade mark (or copyright) infringement.” Justice Patel also noticed that the expression was not coined by the firm as it was a very old and well-known saying in Marathi. Dr Harish Shetty MD Psychiatrist Dr L. H. Hiranandani Hospital Powai 25763232 09820032178 mindmoodsandmagic.blogspot.co
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 02:03:50 +0000