Customs Dept. pulled up for overstepping its jurisdiction

/ By / Uncategorized

In LG Electonics India Pvt. Ltd v. Bharat Bhogilal Patel & Others, Delhi HC vide its interim order pulled up Customs Dept. for restricting clearance of consignments which, as per latter’s determination, allegedly violated patent. It was held that the Customs Commissioner (Imports), one of the defendants, violated Clause 4 of the Notification No.305/96/2004-FTT videCircular No.41/2007-Customs dated 29.10.2007 (“Notification”) and therefore, exceeded its jurisdiction. The judgment was not unanticipated considering that the Notification unequivocally precludes the Customs Dept. from initiating […]

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DIPP receives diverse suggestions on reforming the IPO – Poor response from the IP Bar

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The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has recently posted on its website all the feedback received by it in response to its discussion paper on the ‘Review of the Organizational Structure of the Controller General of Patents, Designs, Trademarks and Geographical Indication’. The Department has received feedback from a number of organizations including INTA, INTERPAT, OPPI, IPA, FICCI etc. All the responses can be accessed over here. The most interesting submissions, in my opinion, is from the ‘Officials

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Dealing with frivolous Pre-grant oppositions with detectives

/ By / Patent

A recent case decided by the Controller in a pre-grant opposition highlights the practice of opposing applications from big pharma for the sake of opposition.  In this case, the Applicant (Abbot Labs.) had to resort to investigating the background of one opposing party, and submit voice recordings to the Controller to help him decide whether the opposition filed was frivolous.  The post highlights summarizes the opposition proceedings in the case and provides certain practice pointers at the end.  Hat tip

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Yash Raj Films dragged to Court for alleged copyright infringement in ‘Ladies v. Ricky Bahl’

/ By / Copyright

In yet another case of its kind, the producers of “Naan Avan Illai”, a hit Tamil movie in 2007, filed a lawsuit against Yash Raj Chopra alleging that their recent release “Ladies v. Ricky Bahl” was infringing the copyright belonging to the former. The Tamil Movie in itself is a remake of a 1974 movie by the same name starring superstar – Gemini Ganesan. According to Wikipedia, the 1974 version was a remake of a 1962 Marathi film and play

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The debate on copyright for DNA sequences finally put to rest? : The Delhi High Court’s Verdict

/ By / Copyright

The Delhi HC recently in Emergent Genetics India Pvt. Ltd. v. Shailendra Shivam and Ors. discussed the copyrightability of DNA sequences and whether they could be classified as ‘literary works’ under the Indian Copyright Act. This case is especially interesting given that this seems to be the first time that such a question has arisen before an Indian court being earlier confined to academic discussion. Dramatis Personae Plaintiff 1: Emergent Genetics India Pvt. Ltd. (formed as a result of a

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CJEU rules against in-transit seizures by Custom officials

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image from here Readers may recall the in-transit seizures which caused a furor about a couple of years ago. A brief recap: Several consignments of generic medicines had been detained while they were in transit from India to other developing / least developed countries by the EU customs under EC Regulation 1383/2003. The 1383 regulation amended border protection mechanisms, so that member states could take certain customs action against goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights, and also laid down the measures

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CIC recommends disciplinary action against errant CPIO at Trademark Registry

/ By / Trademark

In a landmark decision on the 24th of November, 2011, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has recommended disciplinary action against an errant Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) for repeatedly violating the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. The decision of the CIC can be accessed over here. We were pointed towards this decision by an anonymous commentator who left a comment on an earlier post of ours involving the same CPIO. Image from here. The Central Information Commission

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Bollywood Copycats: Inspiration vs Perspiration

/ By / Copyright

A wise inventor named Edison once remarked that genius was “one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration”. Since then, this pearl of wisdom has been handed down from generation to generation and preached several times over by parents, teachers and employers. I’ve always felt that this would have made for a great advertising line for any of the deodorants that we see around us (what better way to rid oneself of all the smell that comes from genius(y) perspiration). But

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SpicyIP Guest Post: Denial of Public Information by IP Offices under RTI Act

/ By / Copyright, Patent

Regular readers of this blog are probably very familiar with the spate of posts covered here relating to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and applications made before various IP offices in connection with the same. Some of my co-bloggers, notably Prashant Reddy, have achieved considerable success in obtaining information from the offices (which anyway ought to have been in the public domain). Our guest post today, by Sai Vinod Nayani, our ‘regular’ guest blogger, and a fourth year student

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SpicyIP Guest Post: IIM’s Copyright Over Cat Questions

/ By / Copyright

The Common Admission Test (CAT) organised by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) is an annual examination exercise undertaken by graduate students across India. An equivalent of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), this year’s CAT was in the news a few weeks ago due to an unusual Non-Disclosure Agreement that prospective examinees were asked to sign before taking the test. Sai Vinod Nayani, our ‘regular’ guest blogger, and a fourth year student of NUJS sends us this note on

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