In case you missed us the past week, here’s a roundup of all the stories that we carried on the blog over the past week. We started the week off with Anubha’s post on the case of Dandi Salt v. Union of India. She analyses this decision of J. Vibhu Bakhru of the Delhi High Court which concludes that the Registrar of Copyrights does not have the power to adjudicate upon the merits of an application preferred by the Copyright Board, and that the Copyright Board may review its own decisions. She highlights however, that the Court refused to express an opinion on whether condonation of delay would qualify as a procedural matter or be evaluated on the merits before the copyright board.
Our next set of posts, by Rupali, were the SpicyIP highlights of the week. This was an analysis (divided into two posts) on the IP aspects surrounding the Hepatitis C drug ‘Sovaldi’. In her first post she briefly outlines the recent developments surrounding the drug. Here she talks about the pre-grant opposition that Gilead’s (the drug manufacturer) patent applications ran into from I-MAK (Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge) and Natco. She also points to the low affordability of the drug among the nearly 2 million Indians suffering from hepatitis and points to a possible CL claim. In her next post, she examines Gilead’s pricing decisions in the context of targeted advocacy as well as the existence of and willingness to utilise TRIPS flexibilities that promote public health.
Swaraj then brought to us an extremely curious development. He posted a tidbit on Thomson Reuters’ claims that they would use Medianama’s articles unless an e-mail was sent to them within 14 days indicating a refusal. We carried an update referring to S.52(1)(m) of the Copyright Act that might actually allow for something like this. A special mention to the comment section of this post that was active with some interesting analysis. A big thank you to all of you who gave your inputs.
Devika then posted about two events, the MAELS 2014 – the 3rd Annual Media, Advertising and Entertainment Legal Summit and the PLCS 2014– Pharma Legal and Compliance Summit 2014 to be held on the 16th of October and the 19th of September respectively. Both events feature a notable list of confirmed speakers and will be valuable for people in these respective fields.
Update: Shamnad sir had also brought our attention (via e-mail) to this news article detailing Woodland’s suit against Hidesign for defamation over publicity of the latter’s infringement suit against Woodland. He points out that the unholy nexus between copyright and defamation has created quite the stir in the past and may lead to SLAPP suits, like the one he faced from Natco. He also points out that entire copyright: design interface has been torturous and hopes for a sensible interpretation from the courts soon enough.
International Developments:
- IPKat brings us this really interesting story about the Patent Office succeeding in a passing off action against fraudsters who sent out fake ‘renewal’ notices in their names.
- It also carried this piece detailing issues surrounding selfies taken inside the National Gallery and copyright infringement.
- IPWatch brought its take on the monkey selfie controversy that seems to be doing the rounds over the internet over the past month or so.
- PatentlyO blogged about a recent US decision where the patent was deemed to be invalid and then strangely the defendant was ordered to stop infringing the patent.
