Arbitrability Of Trademark Disputes

INTRODUCTION

The answer to overcoming of overburdening of Courts was resolution of cases through arbitration. Since its advent, disputes pertaining to various areas of laws have been adjudicated by arbitration and now it has become a stable device for settling out the disputes between the parties. However, the evolution of its jurisprudence in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is quite different.

The Courts ad nauseam have stated that Intellectual Property Rights disputes cannot be referred to Arbitrators with the preeminent reason being that the IPR rights fall under the bracket of right in rem and not under right in personam. However, the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi in Golden Tobie (P) Ltd. v. Golden Tobacco Ltd¹ passed a judgement dated June 04, 2021 wherein it was held that the dispute was primarily related to interpretation of the terms of the Agreement between the parties and right asserted by Plaintiff emanates from the Agreement. Therefore, the