India to Amend its Trade Mark Laws to Facilitate Technology Transfers

The government has approved amendments to the Indian trademark through Trade Mark (Amendments) Bill 2007. The bill will be introduced in Parliament for its approval. According to the government the amendment will encourage technology transfer through trademark licensing and franchising.

The Trade Mark Amendments Bill is India’s gateway to the Madrid Protocol, once approved the Bill will facilitate India’s joining of Madrid Protocol of trade marks as amendments to the bill make their case stronger in India’s intellectual property rights. India’s entry into the Madrid Protocol will facilitate Indian companies to register their trade marks in the member countries through a single application.

Who Will Save Large US Banks?

The US banking giant, Citibank, is once again toying with the ideas of acquiring banks though it’s domestic regional banks now. But with large number of banks still on the FDIC’s list of bank with riskier assets and monthly new additions to the failed banks list (Security Pacific and Franklin Bank, this month), consolidation in the US banking sector has become a needless exercise.

As the US economy scenario is expected to deteriorate further, the number of banks going bust is likely go to higher. A large number of these failed banks are likely to be acquired by big US banks, some of the directive of treasury. This is bound to add more trouble to the large banks, which are already facing credit crisis. The imminent question is- what would happen when these large banks would be on brink of bankruptcy? Will government let them fall?

No. the government already has minor stake in several leading banking firms but this would not their reason for the survival. The US government has put some legislation that almost guarantees the survival of such large firms and puts the “onus” of safeguarding and protecting such organizations on the government. In 1999, Gramm-Leach-Billey (GLB) Act aka Financial Services Modernisation Act was passed that repealed key parts of Glass-Steagall Act. Section 108 of GLB Act states that “Use of subordinated debt to protect the financial system and deposit funds from ‘Too big to fail’ institutions.”

At this moment it is not clear if federal government is pushing large banks to acquire smaller ones knowing that ultimately they would have to save them, or it is these large banks which interested in creating “too big to fail” institutions.

The Companies Bill 2008 manes CEO, CFO & C.S as ‘office in default’

CEO, CFOs and Company Secretary are now will face the default onus in any case pertaining to offence committed by a company. The new Companies Bill, 2008 has made these executives responsible for acts of company. Earlier, there was no clear cut definition of “officer in default” and it resulted in numerous court room debates over who should be held accountable. The bill also asks for such information to be provided in annual reports of the company.

The new changes have been made with view to bring more accountability to corporate governance. The demand for greater transparency and accountability in corporate world has been the major driving force for this change. The Companies Bill, 2008 carries another major amendment for removing the provision for a managing director of an Indian company to be resident in India.