India’s Intellectual Property Policy Needs Evidence, Not Faith

/ By / Copyright, Data Exclusivity, Design, Innovation

Views expressed in this piece and in the TIF piece are author’s own. Vanakam readers! I have written a longish piece for the India Forum (TIF) on why we need more evidence to justify the current subject matter expansion that is taking place across various domains (from GUIs to GenAI to data exclusivities) and not simply operate on faith. This lament is not new; previously, Prof. Basheer and Swaraj, in many different words, brought up the same concern. The context

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Call for Submissions: Brands at the Edge of Intelligence: Trademarks, Technology, and Trust in the AI Economy (Abstract Submission by November 20, 2026)

/ By / Opportunities

The DPIIT–IPR Chair, National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi, invites original and unpublished research contributions examining the evolving relationship between Artificial Intelligence, trademarks, technology, brands, and consumer trust. The last date of abstract submission is November 20, 2026. For more details, check the call for submissions below:- Call for Submissions: Brands at the Edge of Intelligence: Trademarks, Technology, and Trust in the AI Economy The DPIIT–IPR Chair, National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL),

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India’s ABS Blind Spot: Conceptualising the Monitoring of Animal Genetic Resource Utilization under the ABS Framework

/ By / Biological Diversity

Unlike plant genetic resources, animal genetic resources have historically moved across borders through centuries of livestock exchange, breeding and interbreeding, making their origins and subsequent utilisation particularly difficult to trace. In this post, Achyuth examines India’s blind spots in monitoring their utilisation under the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) framework and explores how inter-institutional coordination could help address them. Achyuth B. Nandan is a PhD candidate at Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur, specialising in intellectual property law.

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (October 26-November 1)

/ By / Copyright, Drug Regulation, Patent, Trademark

Announcing the 2026 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition, a post on the ongoing Cadila-Hetero biosimilar dispute ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, and posts on the Indian Designs Office’s draft GUI Guidelines and the Trade Marks Registry’s proposed framework for the use of AI in proceedings. This and much more in this week’s SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we are missing out on? Drop a comment and let us know. Highlights of the Week Announcing the 2026 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on

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SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (02.11.2026)

/ By / Courses & Workshops, Opportunities

Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles. As always, we’ve rounded up a mix of developments, opportunities, and thoughtful reads from across the IP world along with a Bell of the Week that’s well worth revisiting. Bell of the Week: Who Gets Counted as an Inventor? When we think about the history of invention, we often think of the people whose names have become synonymous with a particular discovery or technology. But how much of this history do

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Letting the Plaintiff Examine Regulator’s Approvals: Unpacking the DHC’s Cadila-Hetero Discovery Order Ahead of the SC Hearing

/ By / Drug Regulation

[Thanks to Swaraj Barooah sharing an in-progress draft from a project he is working on examining cancer litigation in India. The questions in there led me to write this post.] Can a court say a company has no right to confidentiality in its regulatory data, and then hand that data to a rival’s expert in a sealed cover? The Delhi High Court decided it can. On 3 November 2026, the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up two Special Leave

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Announcing the 2026 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law

/ By / Biological Diversity, Copyright, Data Exclusivity, Design, Geographical Indication, Innovation, Opportunities, Patent, Trademark

Celebrating the 50th birth anniversary of Prof. Basheer, earlier this year, we had promised to return with the 2026 edition of the Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law. And we are now delighted to announce the launch of this year’s competition! A master with the pen, Prof. Basheer continues to inspire us with his ability to make complex legal ideas accessible to a wider audience. Our long-time readers, and the many others who have engaged with his work,

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Draft Trade Marks Manual 2026: Gaps DPIIT Must Address Before It Goes Final

/ By / Others, Trademark

On August 21, 2026, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIIT) published a Draft Manual on Trade Marks: Practice & Procedure 2026 (Draft Manual) in the Gazette of India, inviting public comments within fifteen days. Running over two hundred pages, the Draft Manual is meant to be the operational rulebook for examiners and registrars and a guide for prospective applicants of a mark. The Draft Manual is an updated version of the 2015 Manual. It has added a

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[Part I] RAM, Routine, and Rights: Looking at the IP Chapter in the EU-India Draft FTA

/ By / Copyright

The Draft India-EU FTA, dubbed the “mother of all deals”, includes a Chapter on Intellectual Property (IP) (Chapter 10), which has sparked concern about outlawing activities that Indian law allows for, such as Digital Archiving or creating temporary copies in RAM while routing web data. While India has not yet published the draft, the EU made it available on 15th September. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently reiterated that the FTA remains on track for finalisation by December 2026, with formal

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Can an Animation Be a Design? Examining India’s Draft GUI and Icon Design Guidelines, 2026

/ By / Design

The Indian Designs Office’s draft GUI Guidelines mark an important step following the Calcutta High Court’s decision in NEC Corporation v. Controller of Patents on the registrability of GUIs. Harshita Bhola writes on the Guidelines, noting that while they are a welcome improvement that could bring greater consistency and predictability to examination practices, the proposed requirement to submit separate representations of individual frames risks overlooking the creative contribution underlying an animation. Harshita Bhola is a 7th-semester B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student

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