NUJS Webinar on ‘IPR& SMEs (Special Focus on Agriculture & Food Sector): Strengthening Bonds in Prime Times’ (April 25)

by SpicyIP April 21, 2021

We’re pleased to inform you that DPIIT IPR Chair, NUJS is organising a webinar on ‘IPR & SMEs (Special Focus on Agriculture & Food Sector): Strengthening Bonds in Prime Times’ on 25th April, 2021. For further details, please see the announcement below: National Webinar on ‘IPR& SMEs (Special focus on Agriculture & Food Sector): Strengthening Bonds in Prime Times’ 25th April 2021 | 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (IST) SMEs are the backbone of the global economy. They account for around 90 percent…

COVID-19 Patent

Compulsory License for Covid Drugs on the Table, Says Delhi High Court

by Swaraj Paul Barooah April 21, 2021

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Even as the pandemic situation continues to worsen in India, the Delhi High Court yesterday put out an order that hauled up the government on various issues regarding the response to the pandemic so far, oxygen use, ramping up of testing facilities, shortage of drugs and black market selling of them, bed shortages, wastage of 44 lakh vaccines(!), etc. The 11 page order by the Division Bench, consisting of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, was given in the case…

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[Sponsored] Seeing It Through: The Journey of the Dean of UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law

by SpicyIP April 19, 2021

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We’re pleased to bring to you this post by UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, sharing a glimpse of the educational and professional journey of its dean Megan Carpenter and what she views as the future of UNH Franklin Pierce’s law programs. Seeing It Through Dean Megan Carpenter has relished the chance to build on UNH Franklin Pierce’s innovative programs in IP law. Early in her career working for a big law firm, Megan Carpenter found herself representing the intellectual…

Patent Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 12 – 18)

by Adyasha Samal April 19, 2021

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Topical Highlight Indian Govt. Permits Manufacture of Covaxin by Haffkine Institute – But Why Not Others Too? Praharsh and Swaraj consider the recent Central Government approval of Haffkine Institute for manufacturing Covaxin, on a ‘technology transfer’ basis, for a period of one year to address the vaccine shortage in the country. They highlight that the wording of the current ‘approval’ seems to indicate that the Central Government has the rights to be able to give the permission. However, it leaves…

COVID-19 Drug Regulation Patent

Indian Govt. Permits Manufacture of Covaxin by Haffkine Institute – But Why Not Others Too?

by Praharsh Gour April 16, 2021

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(This post has been co-authored with Swaraj Barooah) In what seems like a whiff of good news amidst the debacle surrounding availability of COVID-19 vaccine in India, the Central Government has permitted the Haffkine Institute to manufacture Covaxin, on a “technology transfer” basis, for a period of one year. This is definitely needed and hopefully will address the vaccine shortage in the country to some extent. But does this mean that the Central Government had the IP and technology transfer…

Drug Regulation Trademark

The Monopoly Purple – Colours, Shapes and Sizes in the Pharmaceutical World

by Swaraj Paul Barooah April 15, 2021

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Picture of Seretide Accuhaler (circular, in a pink and purple colour combination), next to its box

(This post was co-authored with Murali Neelakantan. Murali is currently Principal lawyer at Amicus. He is a dual qualified lawyer (India and UK) and among other positions, he was formerly a partner at an international law firm in London, Cipla’s first global general counsel, and Executive Director and Global General Counsel of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Murali has also been a long time friend of the blog.) While the role of patents in extending monopolies over pharmaceutical products is now widely debated,…

COVID-19 Patent

Remdesivir Shortage: Can the Drug be Imported under Patents Act?

by Pankhuri Agarwal April 14, 2021

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Amid the ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases, many states in the country are reported to be facing shortage of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug patented by Gilead. The drug was approved by India’s drug regulator in June last year for restricted emergency use for treatment of Covid-19 patients and is presently being manufactured and supplied by seven Indian companies under a voluntary license agreement with Gilead. In order to address the shortage, the Government has (among other measures) banned its export…

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 5 – 11)

by Adyasha Samal April 12, 2021

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Topical Highlights SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace In Part I, Adarsh summarizes the recent SCOTUS ruling on Google’s copying of roughly 11,500 lines of code relating to 37 software packages forming part of Sun Java API, owned by Oracle. The court renders no finding on copyrightability and has restricted itself to the question of fair use by undertaking the four-factor analysis. On ‘Nature of the…

Trademark

Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion

by SpicyIP April 10, 2021

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We’re pleased to bring you a guest post by Dr. Sunanda Bharti, analysing the position of law on registration and infringement of position trademarks. Sunanda is an Associate Professor in Law at Delhi University and has written several guest posts for the blog in the past. Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion Dr. Sunanda Bharti Recently, Tefal was in the news for being denied registration for its famous ‘red dot’ mark in the UK, which was initially claimed to…

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

by Nikhil Purohit April 9, 2021

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It is a common practice for political parties to utilise songs, either original or non-original, as part of their election campaigns. Like most other things in life though, politicians have frequently thought themselves above the law when it comes to asking for permissions for using copyrighted songs! It has led to protests in countries such as the United States by artists against political usage of their music. A prominent controversy involving Rihanna’s objection to Donald Trump using her songs at…

Adyasha Samal { Thank you for bringing out that point, sir. Indeed, implementing a mandatory registration system would unfairly deprive Indian authors of the rights that foreign authors would continue to... }
Jagdish Sagar { Under Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention, copyright protection in works originating in other member countries of the Berne Union cannot be subject to any formalities. If India... }
Praharsh Gour { Hey Megha, Thank you for your comments and pointers. The scenario suggested by you are exactly the same thing we have raised concern about. Seemingly the whole business... }
Megha Banerjee { The only reason that government (ICMR) does not allow other pvt. Drug manufacturing companies to manufacture may be restrictions on ICMR and other other govt. Agencies to create... }
Akshat Agrawal { Hi Adarsh. Thank you. Continuing the conversation. Okay so I think step 1 is important. Copyright exists- but on what does copyright exist? The court has many times... }