Breeding The Trade With Hybrid Trademarks

Introduction

The liberalization of the economy has opened the doors for the foreign enterprises to exploit the Indian markets. The collaboration of various foreign enterprises with the Indian counterparts has started working on various business projects which are named after the initials of the both Indian as well as foreign enterprises. This unique way of representing new business with the initials of two business enterprises have introduced a new kind of trademarks and same is known as Hybrid trademarks.

Legally speaking, the term hybrid trademark does not have any mention in Trade Marks Act 1999 but literally speaking it means a combination of two or more brands to come up as a single brand for the purpose of promoting their legal partnership or business. There are various paradigms of popular hybrid trademarks in India like Maruti-suzuki, Lehar-Pepsi, Kawasaki-bajaj etc and even internationally like Sony-Ericsson, Arcelor- Mittal etc.