Publications

Niggling non compete clauses

Newspapers have widely reported that the very public Ambani feud is ending with, among others, a ten-year non compete clause whereby, neither of the Ambani brothers will promote companies or enter into joint ventures that compete with the existing companies headed by the other. Are such clauses legal? At the…

High fashion knock-offs

By Ranjeev C DubeyIntellectual Property Law

This year’s Lakme India Fashion week in New Delhi ended with designer Suneet Verma alleging fellow designer Aki Narula of plagiarising one of Verma’s designs and passing it off as his own. The outfit in question was part of Verma’s fall/winter 2003 collection and featured in the designer’s advertising campaign…

Appetite for contractual destruction

By Ranjeev C DubeyContract Law

There must be a convoluted logic to this, but why is it that commercial contracts are written to relentlessly appeal to our appetite for senseless destruction? We were animatedly discussing ‘Business Purpose’ clauses at my ‘Understanding Joint Ventures’ workshop last month when I realised that practically everyone in the room…

Of holy cows and shareholders contracts

By Ranjeev C DubeyCompany Law

It amazing how the seemingly easiest legal questions are sometimes the hardest to answer. Other than a 100 per cent buy out, every M&A transaction generates a shareholders’ agreement by which company owners bind themselves to special rights and obligations. How far these agreements are enforceable in Indian law is…