Unconventional Trademarks - Trademarking The Taj!

April 2018

Abstract

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai is the flagship hotel of the renowned Taj group, an Indian hospitality major that owns and manages some of the best hotels, palaces, resorts and safaris in India, apart from other countries like the USA, UK, UAE, South Africa, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal. The Taj group is part of the reputed Tata group, which is a global enterprise headquartered in India, and having a global footprint across 100 nations. The Taj Mahal Palace is one of the most iconic buildings in India. It is a defining structure in the skyline of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, which is sometimes also referred to by many as the Manhattan of India. The distinctive red-tiled Florentine Gothic dome of the hotel crowns its elegant Indo-Saracenic arches and architraves. The imposing dome of the hotel sits 240 feet above street level. Since 16th December, 1903, when the hotel first opened its doors to guests, its striking dome has served as the triangulation point for the Indian Navy to guide them in the harbor. The hotel sits right on the waterfront, across the Gateway of India, a majestic sight as one sails into the harbor.

Author

Rajendra Misra

Senior Vice President - General Counsel, Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris, India

Mr. Rajendra Misra is the Senior Vice President - General Counsel of the Taj group, an Indian hospitality major that owns and manages some of the best hotels, palaces, resorts and safaris in India, apart from other countries like USA, UK, UAE, South Africa, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal. Mr. Misra is a member of the Executive Committee of the Taj group. Mr. Misra is a graduate in Law and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Patents Law. He has undertaken the Hawkesmere Course on International Intellectual Property Law in London. He is featured in the “GC Powerlist: India 2016” amongst the leading General Counsel of the country by The Legal 500, which publishes the GC Powerlist. He is also featured amongst the leading General Counsel in “Trailblazers: India’s Finest In-house Counsels” by the Indian Corporate Counsel Association. Prior to joining the Taj group, Mr. Misra was working with Hindustan Unilever Ltd., the subsidiary of Unilever plc in India. He has more than 26 years of experience in the legal field, having started his legal career as a counsel practicing in the High Court in India. Later, he moved inhouse and has gathered experience in the legal field across industries, having worked inhouse in leading organizations in the Aluminium industry, Tyre industry, FMCG industry and now the Hospitality industry.

Company

Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris

Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris is the most reputed hospitality major in India, with presence in UK, US, UAE, South Africa, Zambia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal. The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai is its flagship hotel - an iconic hotel property and a destination of choice for those visiting India. Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris is part of the Tata group, which has a global footprint across 100 countries in six continents, with 7,00,000 people working for the group. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of the holding company Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture. In the words of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the group, “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.” Those are the values and purpose which inspire each employee of the group every single day.

This Article touches upon certain efforts to protect and utilize select intellectual property rights within US intercollegiate athletics, and specifically, by the main governing body thereof – the National Collegiate...Read more

Jay Rossello

Director of Legal Affairs, National Collegiate Athletic Association One Ncaa Plaza, USA

Intellectual Public Property - Keeping the Fences Up at a Major Event

Fashion houses and other consumer brands in the front line of trade mark infringement continually open war chests in the name of enforcement to protect their brands and their bottom...Read more

Lucas Robertson

General Counsel, Victoria Racing Club, Australia

Patent Strategies for Attenuated Pathogen Vaccines

Malaria is a major health concern for people traveling to and living in malaria-endemic areas, causing 249 million clinical cases and 608,000 deaths in 2022, numbers essentially unchanged over the...Read more

David Dolberg

Senior Director of Intellectual Property, Sanaria Inc., USA

Ways to Avoid Having your Patents Cellected*

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit caused frustrations when it decided to affirm the U.S. Patent Office’s findings that claims in four patents were unpatentable because they are...Read more

Tom Irving

Partner, Marbury Law Group, USA

Xiaoguang Michelle Gao

Associate VP - Assistant General Patent Counsel , Eli Lilly and Company, USA

Michelle E. O'Brien