Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management
Year : 2012, Volume : 2, Issue : 9
First page : ( 156) Last page : ( 167)
Print ISSN : 0000-0000. Online ISSN : 2249-7307.

Trademark law Vis-À-Vis comparative advertisement an instrument to puff or trademark infringement

Aggarwal Ruchi

LLM Student, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi – 110001

Online published on 7 September, 2012.

Abstract

Comparative advertising is a special form of advertising where one undertaking compares its products and services with those of other competitors. It enables advertisers to demonstrate the merits of their products and improves the quality of information available to consumers enabling him to make more informed decisions. However the problem arises when undertakings tempted to drive unfair advantages from such inaccurate comparisons. The trademark law with regard to comparative advertisement is still unclear. It only provides for circumstances under which the comparative advertisement is allowed and fails to address many imperative issues like what amounts to comparative advertisement as well as honest practices, when it would lead to product disparagement. All these factors together have left the field of comparative advertisement under trademark law effectively unregulated. Thus an attempt is made to understand the concept of comparative advertising. This article further examines the Indian position by comparatively analyzing it with similar provisions in the countries like UK and US. The paper also attempt to provide critical analysis of the prevailing legislative provisions in India with possible solutions.

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Keywords

Comparative advertisement, Trademark law, puffing up, honest practices, product disparagement.

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