Book Review: Intellectual Property Rights: Infringement and Remedies, Ananth Padmanabhan, (Lexis Nexis- Butterworths, 2012)

Abstract

At the heart of intellectual property (‘IP’) law are the ‘hard’ questions on infringement and remedies. Today, Indian courts have to grapple with these issues on an ever-increasing scale. A focused legal commentary on the nuances of IP law has been much awaited.

Ananth Padmanabhan’s book on Intellectual Property Rights: Infringement and Remedies couldn’t have come at a better time. It is a definitive legal commentary on Indian IP law with an overall focus on IP remedies, nevertheless, uncovering a variety of distinct IP topics.

To combine five different chapters on patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and on the law of common law relief with an exclusive focus on infringement and remedies is a marvel of comprehension. Additionally, an introductory chapter on the nature and scope of injunctive relief is a must read for those seeking to understand the foundational principles of injunctive procedures to obtain legal relief. Notwithstanding that the key objective to the book was to clearly examine and identify legal standards pertaining to IP infringement and remedies, the author has done a good job of elucidating issues concerning IP validity from the perspective of subject-matter and threshold qualification requirements, and on issues bearing IP acquisition, statutory and equitable defenses and other relevant issues on which Indian courts have pronounced in a variety of different cases.

Keywords: Intellectual Property Law, Infringement and Remedies, Indian Intellectual Property, Ananth Padmanabhan, Yogesh Pai

JEL Classification: K11, K41, K20