Naveena Durairaj & Bhavana Duhoon here write about a comprehensive overview of Comparative Advertisement.
ABSTRACT
“Frivolity has become a serious business these days. Television commercials which are meant to portray a stylization of the good life are crafted with great care, using all the skills that the arts and psychology have produced.”1 It is explicable that considering the various market forces and the fierce competition coupled with the ability of the common man to purchase a product, which he deems to be good for himself, comparative advertising has become inevitable. The concept of comparative advertisement has created quite an amount of uproar lately. Since, the liberalizing reforms were introduced in the 1990s every product category has seen a boom in the number of brands. This has led to extensive use of comparative advertising by the companies to promote their product over the others. In India comparative advertisement has taken off in a big way. There has been a paradigm shift from hesitant indirect comparisons to bold and direct comparisons. At present comparative advertisement is not dealt by any specific law in India. Section 29 of Trademarks Act and section 36A of the repealed MRTP Act have been applied in cases where the companies were alleged to have overstepped their liberties in advertising their products. The authors of this article have scrutinized regulations governing comparative advertisement in India and analyzed case laws laying down the protocol to be followed while simultaneously assessing the common law and statute governing comparative advertisement in the US.”