A recent Delhi High Court ruling allowing arbitrary and distinctive numerical combinations to be eligible to be registered as a trademark in India may result in multiple litigations of similar looking, sounding, and appearing trademarks, legal experts said.
They are of the opinion that while numbers have historically been accepted as a trademark globally, the ruling paves the way for big business houses and opportunistic persons monopolising the registration of culturally significant and popular numbers, especially in countries such as India.
Numerals have historically been popular forms of trademarks, said Swati Sharma, partner (head-intellectual property) at law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.
