A trademark registration is meant to bring certainty. Yet in The Heritage Artifacts v. Registrar of Trade Marks, a mark that had been examined, advertised and registered was later cancelled by the very office that had granted it, on the ground that it was descriptive. The Delhi High Court set that cancellation aside. The decision speaks to two audiences at once: businesses choosing a brand that sits close to the descriptive line, and owners who find a granted registration suddenly under threat. It restates two settled principles, that the Registry must give cogent reasons before undoing its own grant, and that a composite mark must be read as a whole rather than pulled apart word by word.
