November 2008

Guest Post: Delhi High Court on ‘Originality’ and ‘Fair dealing’

/ By / Copyright

(In a recent judgment in Chancellor Masters of Oxford v. Narendra Publishing House, Justice Bhat of the Delhi High Court had the opportunity to once again examine the law relating to the standard of originality in copyright law. Additionally, the judgment also contains an extensive discussion of ‘fair dealing’. The following is a guest post on the judgment contributed by Mathews George, a 3rd year student at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata) The recent judgment of the Delhi […]

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Revisiting the CSE-Mint copyright controversy

/ By / Copyright

In my last post on the CSE-Mint controversy, I had confidently claimed, that the answer to whether CSE could claim a ‘fair-dealing’ defense, was a ‘resounding no’. However a fine piece of legal analysis from the OriginalFake blog has forced me to recant the ‘resounding no’ and instead replace it with a timid ‘maybe’.  OriginalFake is a blog founded by Mr. Prashant Iyengar of the Alternative Law Forum and it deals with the “politics of IP, Technology and Culture in India”. 

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Indian "Bayh Dole" Bill Clears Cabinet: But Still Remains a Secret

/ By / Uncategorized

A couple of days back, the Hindu Business Line reported that the “Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr Mannmohan Singh …approved the Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill 2008”. The Mint responded to this news in a very punchy edit, reiterating concerns of “secrecy” and lack of sufficient “public interest” safeguards: Not in Public Interest “It is quite curious. Just a week ago, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal acknowledged media and experts’

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100,000 Hits and Counting….

/ By / Uncategorized

I’m happy to inform our readers that earlier this week SpicyIP notched up over 100,000 hits since September, 2007. Our subscriber base has also increased to over 850 members. Although its not as significant as Obama winning the U.S. Presidency, I must say that these are heartening numbers especially for a blog dedicated to only Indian IP laws. Given that the popularity of blogs such as SpicyIP is dependant on word-of-mouth reviews, I would like to thank our dedicated readers

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Barrack Obama and the "Change" in IP Policy

/ By / Uncategorized

Newspapers the world over have begun predicting the prospects of a “new” world under recent President elect, Barrack Obama. And in our esoteric IP world, talks have begun on what his appointment means for IP policy, both in the US and internationally. Interestingly, one of President Obama’s chief IP advisors is Professor Arti Rai, a renowned Duke University law professor of Indian origin. Liza Porteus, Kaitlin Mara and William New of IPWatch have put together reactions from various folks in

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Patenting Software and Business Methods In India

/ By / Uncategorized

The Mint published an op-ed of mine cautioning that India should simply read its statute in a straightforward manner to exclude software and business method patents. And that we ought not to resort to legal sophistry and buy into the tortuous interpretations advanced by US and EU courts on this count. If at all software and business method patents are to be granted, they can be done only through an express statutory amendment. Here is the text: A Method to

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Guest post: US patent litigation tactics

/ By / Patent

Several of you may be familiar with the Upaid vs Satyam case that I’ve been following for some time on this blog. The last reported news was on the filing of a third amended complaint in a federal court in Texas. A fallout of tracking this story has been trying to understand the nuances of US litigation in such cases. Which is where the following guest post comes in by Siddharth Fernandes, who is a law clerk for a US

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Bilski Order and Software Patenting in India

/ By / Patent

The Draft Manual on Patent Practice and Procedure 2008 (patent manual), put up for comments by the Indian Patent office to follow as a guideline for the patent examiners as well as patent applicants has brought forth criticism on software patenting. Section 3(k) of the Patent Act 1970, as amended by Patents (Amendment) Act 2005, provides that a mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms are not a patentable subject matter. The patent manual through

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SpicyIP Event: 2nd Annual International Conference on Counterfeiting & Piracy

/ By / Uncategorized

As a follow up of the ongoing Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) initiative against Counterfeiting & Piracy, the CII in collaboration with Quality Brand Protection Committee (QBPC) is organizing its 2nd Annual Conference on Counterfeiting & Piracy on 12-13 November 2008 at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Sahar, Near International Airport, Mumbai. The Conference looks to: Serve as a platform to develop close and meaningful Co-operation with the stakeholders. Facilitate international cooperation in fortifying criminal and administrative enforcement of IP through networking.

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Guest Post: Professor Sarnoff Warns India about the Doctrine of Equivalents

/ By / Uncategorized

Readers may recollect our post discussing Ravi Kamal vs Kala Tech, where we asked if this was perhaps India’s first case invoking the “doctrine of equivalents”. We profusely thank one of our readers who came back in our comments section stating that the doctrine of equivalents found mention way back in Raj Parkash Vs. Mangat Ram Chowdhry and Ors. AIR 1978 Delhi 1. Quoting Lord Denning in Beecham Group Limited v. Bristol Laboratories Ltd. and another, 1967 (16) R.P.C. 406

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