- The plaintiff, Colgate Palmolive, sued the defendant, Mr. Patel, for infringing on their trademark and trade dress through the similar packaging of Patel's dental products. While the court acknowledged Colgate's trademark on the word used, it ruled that red and white colors were commonly used in toothpaste packaging and could not be monopolized. However, Patel was found to be trying to benefit from Colgate's brand recognition and was ordered to modify the packaging to avoid confusion.

1. ETHICS IN
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS

2. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) refers to the ownership of an idea
or design by the person who came up with it. It is a term used in property law. It
gives a person certain exclusive rights to a distinct type of creative design, meaning
that nobody else can copy or reuse that creation without the owner's permission.
It can be applied to musical, literary and artistic works, discoveries and inventions.
Common types of intellectual property rights
include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade secrets and
geographical indications .
• PATENT: A patent grants property rights on an invention, allowing the patent
holder to exclude others from making, selling, or using the invention. Inventions
allow many businesses to be successful because they develop new or better
processes or products that offer competitive advantage on the market place.
• TRADE MARK : A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design that
distinguishes the source of products (trademarks) or services (service marks) of
one business from its competitors. In order to qualify for patent protection, the
mark must be distinctive.

3. CONT…..
• TRADE SECRET: A trade secret is a formula, process, device, or other business
information that companies keep private to give them a business advantage over their
competitors.
• COPYRIGHTS : Copyrights protect original works of authorship, such as literary works,
music, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, sculptural, pictorial, and
graphic works, sound recordings, artistic works, architectural works, and computer
software. With copyright protection, the holder has the exclusive rights to modify,
distribute, perform, create, display, and copy the work.
• INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: In a legal sense, an industrial design constitutes the
ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article . An industrial design may consist of three
dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two dimensional features, such as
patterns, lines or color.
• GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS : A geographical indication (GI) is a sign used on
products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that
are due to that origin. In order to function as a GI, a sign must identify a product as
originating in a given place. In addition, the qualities, characteristics or reputation of the
product should be essentially due to the place of origin. Since the qualities depend on the
geographical place of production, there is a clear link between the product and its original
place of production.

4. CASE STUDY
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs Mr. PATEL –
DELHI HIGH COURT 2005

5.  This is a case relating to the legal principle of infringement of a
trademark. It wasdecided by a Single Judge Bench of theDelhi High
Court comprising of Justice M. Mudgal.
 Colgate Palmolive Company Limited (plaintiffs) is a company that
has been manufacturing and marketing dental products in India
under the well-known trademark 'COLGATE' since1937.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs
Mr. PATEL – DELHI HIGH COURT
2005

6.  The company undoubtedly is also an international leader in the
trade of tooth paste and other dental related products. The
plaintiffs registered their trademark in India inthe year1954.
 Since then they have always marketed their products in red
cartons which had the word COLGATE inscribed in white on it.
They used a particular font for printing the trademark on the
cartons.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs
Mr. PATEL – DELHI HIGH COURT
2005

7.  Further they hadevenregisteredtheir labelrelatingto colorsin
India in the year1959.
 Fromthenontheyhavebeenexclusively enjoying the ownership
rights over the trademark 'COLGATE'andalsothelabel containing
the redandwhite colors inscribed onit.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs
Mr. PATEL – DELHI HIGH COURT
2005

8. ISSUES OF THE CASE
In the year 2003 the plaintiffs came to know that Mr.
Patel and his company (hereinafter referred to as the
defendants) were using the plaintiff's COLGATE trade
dress in the packaging of their products with relation to
the layout andcolorcombinationof the cartons.
 The defendants used the word 'AJANTA' printed in
white colorinaredbackground in theircartons.

9.  Subsequently the plaintiffs filed a suit before the Delhi
High Court seeking a permanent injunction against the
defendants, thereby restraining them from using the
trade dress that was similar in layout appearance even
though the names printed on the cartons were different.
 They contended that the defendants had infringed their
trademark and copyrights. And further that they were
indulging in unfaircompetitionbytrying to selltheir
products usingthe brand name of trademarkCOLGATE.

11. -The defendants used the word 'AJANTA'
printed in white color in a red background
in theircartons.
Subsequently the plaintiffs filed a suit before
the Delhi High Court seeking a permanent
injunction against the defendants, thereby
dress that was
restraining them from
similar
using the
in layout
trade
and
appearance even though the names printed
on the cartons weredifferent.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs Mr.
PATEL – DELHI HIGH COURT 2005

12.  They had contended that the defendants
 And further that they were indulging
in unfair competition by trying to sell
their products using the brand name
of trademark COLGATE.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs Mr.
PATEL – DELHI HIGH COURT 2005
Infringed their trademark and copyrights.

13.  On the other hand, the defendants
contended that there was nothing
distinctive in the color combination of
the plaintiff's container and that the
plaintiff could not have a trademark in
colorcombination.
 Further they claimed that the red and
white label was common to the
toothpaste trade.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE Co. LTD vs Mr.
PATEL – DELHI HIGH COURT 2005

14. • The Honorable Judge observed that essential feature of the
plaintiffs' mark was COLGATE inscribed in white color on a red
background and not merely red and white color combination
alone.
• held that the printing of the word ‘AJANTA’ on the defendants’
cartons in white color on a red background does not give rise
to any infringement of the plaintiffs’ trade dress.
Colgate Palmolive Co. Ltd & Another vs MR Patel &
Others
PRN-112

15. • Also affirmed the contention of the defendants that red was a basic color
and the red & white color combination is common to the tooth paste
trade in the domestic aswell asthe international market.
• Hence there cannot be any Monopolization of the same by any party.
Colgate Palmolive Co. Ltd & Another vs Patel & Others.
PRN-112

16. Colgate Palmolive Co.Ltd & Another vs Mr. Patel & Others
• However, he finally held that the defendants were liable
for trying to sell their products using the brand name of
COLGATE since there was sufficient resemblances
between the plaintiffs and the defendant product.
PRN-112

17. Colgate Palmolive Co.Ltd & Another vs Mr. Patel &
Others
• Further the court ruled that if the defendants alters the packaging
there would not arise any question of infringement of copyright and
trademark of plaintiff.
• Accordingly the court ordered them to substitute gold for white
colour in description of AJANTA in their cartons.
PRN-114

18. Colgate Palmolive Co.Ltd & Another vs Mr. Patel &
Others
• Thus the injunction application was disposed of by court and
defendants were permitted to market their products provided they
made the required alterations in their packaging of products.
PRN-114

19. CONCLUSION
• This primary aspect of this case study focuses on two important rights i.e monopoly and exclusive rights in
case of colours. According to trademark law red and white colour combination is common to toothpaste
trade .
• A chromatic monopoly in respect of red and white colours claimed by the plaintiff in terms of the
registration of its mark affects not only the large tooth paste market in India in particular but also the
issue of exclusive rights to a particular colour scheme generally.
• The combination of color can be registered if they are unique in nature and the mark is used to distinguish
the goods and services from others. If a company have a color pattern which makes it distinct from the
competition it can be registered. It is difficult to obtain trademark if the combination of color applied is
simply from the certain purpose and the color combination is not recognized in the society. For example, a
combination of color like white and yellow can not be registered by any toothpaste company as every
toothpaste company uses these colors.
• The defendants have sought to market a product in a red carton with letters in white colour so as to imitate
the plaintiff's product and its carton in order to unfairly ride on the bandwagon of success and fame of the
plaintiff's product.
• Some companies have trademarked color on the basis of the function that they serve to the society. And
even courts have admitted that certain colors are trademarked only if they serve some purpose. Conor does
matter to companies and if their competition tries to copy it, legally it can be stopped.

20. NAME:
• The defendant's product is sold under the trade mark 'AJANTA' and enjoys immense reputationand
goodwill all over the world and there cannot be any deception by selling goods under the nameof 'AJANTA'
when the plaintiff's mark is 'COLGATE' which is totally different both phonetically and visually.
PRICE:
• The plaintiffs have been avoiding the healthy competition offered by the defendants by indigenous efforts
to make available by the defendants the standard quality goods at an affordableprice. Since the
defendants have made available standard quality goods at much lesser price than the plaintiffs, this has
instigated the plaintiffs, which are a large multi-national, to bring an action against the defendants inspite
of being fully conscious of the fact that they have no case in facts as well as in law.
FEATURES:
The addition of various features to get up and design from time to time cannot give the plaintiffs any
particular right to any particular artistic design. The defendants are using red and yellow as prominent
colour. Apart from the colour scheme, the get up of two cartons is different and an entirely different trade
mark has been prominently used and printed by both the parties.

21. RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The registered trademark for any brand should have a
unique,innovative name .
2. If the company is offering any product that is similar to rival's
product in terms of features and funtion then no compromise on
quality should be made .
3. Before the product is launched in the market the company should
be aware about all copyright and infringement laws .