Trademark Bullying Across Borders: A Comparative Analysis Of Legal Frameworks In India, The United States, And The United Kingdom

Sunil Kumar S, LLM (Intellectual Property Rights and Trade Law), CHRIST Deemed to be University, Bangalore, Karnataka

Dr Pukhraj Agarwal, Assistant Professor, CHRIST Deemed to be University, School of Law, Bangalore, Karnataka

ABSTRACT

Trademark protection refers to the legal safeguards granted to distinctive symbols, names, logos, or other identifiers associated with goods or services. The law of trademark protection is designed to prevent unauthorized use of these marks by competitors, ensuring that consumers can reliably identify and differentiate and recognize the offerings or services of a particular enterprise from others. The law of trademark protection protects the sale of counterfeit products under an existing reputed brand name. This kind of protection helps to maintain the goodwill and reputation associated with the particular brand, and providing legal remedies for infringement. But the trademark owners, plan to protect their trademarks, by exceeding the boundaries of legal enforcement, and engaging in aggressive actions beyond the law. (Trademark Bullying) where multinational companies can file cases on smaller entities but small enterprises may face financial constraints that make it difficult for them to imitate legal action against larger corporations engaging in trademark bullying. It is important to note that the “trademark bullying” is not defined in Indian Trademark act 1999, and also it is not mentioned in any Indian trademark rules or manual.

Keywords: Trademark Bullying, Legal Threats, Monopoly, Trademark