New Leadership at SpicyIP

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In an earlier post, I expressed my desire to step down from the leadership of SpicyIP. This decision (over which I procrastinated for several months) stemmed from a variety of reasons, the most significant of which was  my extensive involvement with a whole host of projects around legal education (most pertinently, an access to education project for underprivileged students, titled IDIA).  I therefore thought it better to hand over leadership to someone with more bandwidth to handle the onerous task […]

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Madras Bar Association fights to save independence of key tribunals from the ‘babus’ of the Central Govt.

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Image from here The ToI and the legal news website Law et. al. have both reported on a public interest litigation filed by the Madras Bar Association before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality and administration of several tribunals. The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Union of India on the petition. Given the scope of the relief prayed for in the petition, the case has the potential to both streamline and revolutionize the increasingly powerful and unwieldy tribunal system

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APEDA discloses legal expenses on ‘Basmati’ – Rs. 7,62,00,000 and counting;

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Finally, after much coaxing and at least one appeal, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has disclosed its legal expenses on protecting and registering the phrase ‘Basmati’ as a ‘trademark’ and as a ‘geographical indication’. The response can be viewed over here.  As per APEDA’s reply, “An amount of Rs. 7.62 crores (Rs. 7,62,00,000) has been paid to M/s K&S Partners as aggregate professional fee from 1995-96 to 2011-12 (upto 31.3.2012) towards protection of intellectual property

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20th Century Fox Film Corporation v. Zee Telefilms Ltd. & Ors.

/ By / Copyright

This recently decided case involves a TV show, Time Bomb, produced by Zee Telefilms in 2005. The Plaintiffs alleged that this was a copy of their acclaimed show 24. The case was filed in 2005 and seems slightly dated since none of these shows are on air anymore. It is also quite puzzling to see the court deciding  on whether an interim injunction should be granted nearly 7 years after the suit was first filed in 2005. In this suit the

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A face-off in the offing between the Delhi High Court and the Customs Board?

/ By / Patent

Continuing from my earlier post on the order of the Delhi High Court in the L.G. case, I would like to point out an interesting trend where orders of the Delhi High Court especially those of Justice Manmohan Singh, pertaining to the IPR (Imported Goods) Enforcement Rules, 2007 are being skilfully countered by one Mr. Satish Kumar Reddy, Director at the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). (Rest assured he is in no way related to me.)  (i) Samsung

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Patentability of Computer Software Programs in India

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In my previous post about the Samsung-Apple patent war in the tablet and smartphone market, I ranted about the curse of patents in the industry and how Judge Richard Posner, of the U.S. Court of Appeals expressed his disdain for patents in the industry as well. Thus, I thought it may be useful to examine the issue of software patents in India – to lay down the present law on the subject. Thus, in the following paras, I will briefly

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Samsung v. Apple – Let the Patent Games Begin

/ By / Patent

While the patent wars between the various smartphone and tablet manufacturers (Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google) have been raging for a while, there are a few recent stories that deserve a quick mention for being plain hilarious to downright ridiculous. SAMSUNG v. APPLE IN THE U.S. One might remember the order of a U.S. District Court late last month that granted Apple a preliminary injunction against Samsung for the sale of the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. Judge Koh remarked that there was enough

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Delhi High Court passes restraining orders in a declaratory patent lawsuit after the patent has already been revoked by IPAB!

/ By / Patent

Image from here. In a recent 80 page order, Justice Manmohan Singh of the Delhi High Court has, probably unwittingly, passed restraining orders in the case of L.G. Electronics India Pvt. Ltd. v. Bharat Bhogilal Patel & Othrs after the patent in question was already revoked by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). The order can be accessed over here. An earlier order passed in this lawsuit was also rather surprising and I’ve blogged about that order over here.  The

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Guest Post: Myriad’s Gene Patent Case Receives an Amicus curiae brief by Nobel Laureate Dr. James D. Watson

/ By / Patent

Taapsi Johri, a practising IP lawyer, has sent us this very interesting guest post on the ongoing Myriad, ‘gene patents’ case before the CAFC. The focus of her post is on the amicus brief filed by Dr. James Watson, the Nobel Laureate who discovered the double helix structure of DNA. Taapsi’s post below captures the essence of the debate and its applicability to India, which apparently has been granting gene patents. Myriad’s Gene Patent Case Receives an Amicus curiae brief

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CSIR maintains DEATHLY silence on royalties (if any!) earned from licencing of its patents

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It appears that my 5 months old campaign to force CSIR to disclose information on the royalties earned from licencing of its patents is simply not going to bear any fruit. I had initially filed an application in March this year to investigate the sums that CSIR is spending on patenting and the amount that it is earning through licensing of these patents. At that time, although CSIR disclosed that it had spent close to Rs. 74,20,00,000 on securing its

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