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

/ By / Copyright, Others, Overlaps in IP, Trademark

Recent personality rights orders from the Delhi High Court continue to push the doctrine into uncertain territory, with the latest ruling in favour of Allu Arjun marking a particularly sharp turn. In Part I of the two-part post on the order, Dr. Aakanksha Kumar argues that by characterizing the likeness of the actor as “copyrights of the plaintiff”, the Court collapses distinct IP doctrines into an overbroad conception of “personality rights,” raising serious concerns for copyright and publicity jurisprudence in

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SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (21.04.2026)

/ By / Courses & Workshops, Opportunities

Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles. Before we get into this week’s Bell — we’ve just started a SpicyIP WhatsApp group to share updates and opportunities. Would be great to have you there (click the link to join the channel)! And 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: Shodhganga Some bells do not

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The Inventor is still Human: Indian Patent Office’s DABUS Refusal

/ By / Innovation, Patent

In keeping with a broad global trend, the Indian Patent Office has refused Dr. Stephen Thaler’s patent application which sought to recognise Dr. Thaler’s AI system DABUS as the inventor of a ‘food container and devices and methods for attracting enhanced attention’. The Indian patent office’s decision goes a step beyond the refusals issued by other jurisdictions and discusses, along with inventorship, the question of patentability of the claimed invention. The refusal of the Indian Patent Office is a part

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AIR-1, Right of Publicity-0: Delhi HC’s CLATastrophic Mix-Up

/ By / Others, Trademark

This post is co-authored with Dr. Aakanksha Kumar. Dr. Aakanksha Kumar (She/Her) is an independent researcher and academic who also consults with content creators and advises Chhattisgarhi music artists on copyright-related matters. Previously, she served as Associate Professor, Associate Dean, and Associate Director of the Centre for Post Graduate Legal Studies (CPGLS) at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS). Since 2019, she has designed and taught a self-created elective course across law schools titled Comparative Celebrity Laws: Personality, Publicity and Free

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