Launching the SpicyIP Academy Research Clinic (SPARC)!

/ By / Opportunities, Others

The call for applications for SPARC Cohort 1 is now open!  We are delighted to announce the launch of SPARC, the SpicyIP Academy Research Clinic SPARC is our dedicated attempt at bridging the accessibility gap to structured peer review that a large number of Indian IP researchers currently face. We understand that substantive, expert feedback during the early and middle stages of research is still limited to a small number of well-resourced institutions. SPARC is our effort to build a […]

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Dead Marks, Live Assets – The Case for a Registry Supervised Auction of Lapsed Trademarks in India

/ By / Trademark

India’s trademark register is quietly bleeding value. Each year, marks with real commercial recall lapse not because they’ve lost relevance, but because renewal deadlines are missed, erasing years of built goodwill from the legal record. In this post, Lakshmidevi Somanath argues that instead of letting these assets vanish, India should rethink its approach and create a system to recycle lapsed trademarks back into the market. Lakshmidevi Somanath is a Partner – Litigation & Strategy in Anand and Anand and former

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‘Venetoclax’ at the IPO: Why Generics Need More than Patent Refusals

/ By / Patent

How much of a win is a patent rejection for domestic generics production? In this post, I discuss the specific points of IPO’s refusal as a continuation of Indian patent jurisprudence on Section 3(d), and why, irrespective of the essentiality of patent law to the discourse on generics, contrary to news reports, a single patent refusal alone is not sufficient in improving access to cancer therapies. The Making of a Blockbuster Drug Venetoclax is a blockbuster cancer drug jointly developed

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Surat Cut GI tag for Diamond and Terroir: an Unfinished Love Story

/ By / Geographical Indication

The newly granted Surat Cut diamond GI tag promises to recognise craftsmanship, skill, and one of India’s most remarkable industrial success stories. But can a legal framework built to protect places truly capture value created by mobile communities whose expertise travels across borders? Writing on this development, Niharika Salar explores how the Surat GI both advances and exposes the limits of India’s geographical indications regime, where the real story may be less about land and more about labour. Niharika is

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Journalistic Expression or Commercial Shaming? When Media Criticism Meets Commercial Disparagement Law

/ By / Copyright

In a clash between legacy broadcast media and digital watchdog journalism, the Delhi High Court’s ruling in TV Today v. Newslaundry confronts a difficult modern question: when does sharp media criticism become actionable commercial disparagement? Naman Singh writes that while the judgment offers important clarifications on interim injunctions, it leaves unresolved the deeper tension between reputational protection and press freedom. Naman is an LLB (Hons.) student at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Having a background in music, film,

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SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (27.04.2026)

/ 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: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh Some bells do not just chime, they shift how we think about creation. This week’s bell is for Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, whose work has long engaged with the idea of collaborative creation and the ways in

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 20- April 26)

/ By / Copyright, Geographical Indication, Patent, Trademark

After an exciting week of discussion on GIs, ambush marketing, and the right of publicity, here is a round-up of the week with the latest edition of the Weekly Review for April. This week featured discussions on the Delhi High Court’s orders in the Peruvian Pisco appeal and the Allu Arjun personality rights matter. We also had posts on ambush marketing and the IPO’s rejection of Dr. Stephen Thaler’s patent application for a DABUS-invented invention. Are we missing anything? Drop

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Crashing the Game, Not the Law: Ambush Marketing and IP Law

/ By / Trademark

A very happy World IP Day to our readers! As the IPL frenzy returns, so does the battle for consumer attention, this time fought as much through witty notifications and real-time campaigns as on the cricket field, and raising familiar questions about the legality and limits of ambush marketing. In this post, Anooja Padhee and Jyoti Panigrahi argue that non-deceptive ambush marketing reflects creative competition and that IP law should protect rights without stifling humour, parody, and innovation. Anooja is

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It’s the time to Pisco: Delhi HC Dismisses Peru’s GI Hopes Again!

/ By / Geographical Indication, Others, View All

“A Tale of Two Countries”. That is how the Delhi HC Division Bench (“DB”) described the judgment dated 18th March 2026 in the Appeal by the Embassy of Peru against the July 2025 Pisco decision by Justice Mini Pushkarna. Extensively covered on our blog previously, in travelling through the IPAB and the Delhi HC, the Pisco saga has brought to light the concept of “homonymous GIs” covered under S. 10 of the GI Act. Homonymous GIs are indications that sound/spell

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Part II: Flower Nahi, Fire: Delhi HC Waters the Wrong Rights (Again!) 

/ By / Others, Privacy, Trademark

Building on Part I’s critique of the DHC’s doctrinal conflation in the Allu Arjun case, Part II of the post turns to a related concern: the Court’s failure to distinguish between vastly different forms of unauthorised use. In this post, Dr. Aakanksha Kumar explains how collapsing fan practices, commercial merchandise, and AI-driven misuse into a single category produces an overbroad and structurally flawed approach to personality rights. Dr. Aakanksha Kumar (She/Her) is an independent researcher and academic who also consults

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