This week’s thematic highlight is Prof. Basheer’s post on the recent proposal of the government to change the four year limit for State level drug regulatory approvals to 10 years, which some consider as a backdoor extension of data exclusivity. Here, he discusses how the effects of this proposal largely depend on the kind of data generic companies must submit. He also discusses the glaring gaps in our drug regulatory regime and the urgent need to study and understand the laxities of our flawed system.
The topical highlight for the week is Rahul’s post on the NSAI’s demand for stringent action against Monsanto. NSAI has urged authorities to punish Monsanto’s illegal actions in attempting to commercialize Bt cotton. NSAI alleged that Monsanto has no patent rights over Bt cotton and that the company is exploiting a regulatory loophole. Here, Rahul argues that the government’s ad-hoc attempts to regulate Bt cotton prices are part of a worrying trend.
Balu then brought us some much welcomed news. His post informs us that two recent studies point out that that the gender gap between inventors is gradually being bridged worldwide. The reports of the UK Intellectual Property Office and a working paper of WIPO show that more and more women are filing for patents across the world. He however concludes that these rising numbers are still low and no effort can be speared in order to achieve gender balance of inventors.
Next, I wrote a post on the Government’s consideration of a proposal to ban all foreign investments in the tobacco sector, including through the trademark licensing and franchising route, which had been allowed thus far despite a 2010 ban on FDI in tobacco manufacturing. This ban is being sought on grounds of public health in an attempt to reduce tobacco consumption in the country.
Pankhuri then informed us that the PHD Chamber in collaboration with the University of Delhi is hosting a National Conference on Intellectual Property Rights to be held on December 16th and 17th in New Delhi. The broad theme of the conference shall be “Emerging IPR issues and challenges for Innovations for startups, MSME and Academia”.
International Developments
- The Iceland v Iceland trademark dispute escalates as the UK supermarket chain claims that the Icelandic government is unwilling to resolve the issue.
- The pop group Duran Duran loses legal battle to reclaim the US rights to some of their biggest hits.
- Kylie Jenner faces copyright infringement suit for the alleged misappropriation of the imagery of another make-up artist in connection with her popular cosmetics line.
- The Recording Academy, organizers of the prestigious Grammy awards write a letter to Donald Trump asking his administration to help “fix the broken copyright system”.
- The hit musical “Jersey Boys” found liable for the copyright infringement of band member Tommy DeVito’s unpublished autobiography.
- German brand e15 sues IKEA in Germany’s highest court, claiming that IKEA’s bestselling bed is copied from one of its own designs.
