2008

Substandard manufacturing investigated: Ranbaxy under the microscope

/ By / Uncategorized

Indian manufacturer Ranbaxy is in the news yet again. And, in a trend that seems not too surprising, it’s in the news for all the wrong reasons. Currently, Ranbaxy is under contract with the American Government to provide antiretroviral drugs (for HIV/AIDS) at a lower cost. However, these very drugs are now under the microscope, with investigations last month instituted to examine whether the same are substandard, impotent or unstable. ProPublica (an independent, non-profit newsroom that hopes to bring to […]

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Spicy IP Tidbit: Indian Govt. to take charge of buying patented drugs and devices for the country?

/ By / Uncategorized

The Indian government seems to have noticed, that barring a few instances of certain MNCs such as Merck launching their products differentially priced, or even counting these differentially priced drugs, health care remains by and large, much beyond the paying capabilities of even the fast growing middle classes. As per current proposals by the ministry, the Indian govt. could become the country’s sole purchaser of patented drugs. If carried out, this would be the first instance where the public as

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The Draft Manual of the Patent Office and SpicyIP’s recommendations on Section 3(d)

/ By / Uncategorized

As many of you must already know the Patent Office has been having stakeholders meetings in various cities in regards the Draft Manual released by the Patent Office some months ago. It needs no repeating that the Draft Manual does not have the force of law and is merely indicative of the practices of the Patent Office. The Delhi and Bombay meetings have already been concluded. The patent office discussed the participation in a press release which can be accessed

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Open source licenses are copyright enforceable

/ By / Copyright

The terms of an open source license are copyright enforceable, and not merely enforceable under contract law, according to a pioneering decision of a US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) last week. The court essentially held that the provisions of an open source license constitute a form of copyright, and are legally enforceable as such. Read this excellent article in InformationWeek on the case here. Brief facts of the Jacobsen vs Katzer decision (available as a download

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Breaking News: India’s First "Sound" Mark Registered

/ By / Trademark

SpicyIP just learnt that India’s Trademark Office has granted the first “sound” mark in favour of Yahoo Inc yesterday! Simply put, a sound mark is a non-conventional trademark where sound is used to perform the trademark function of uniquely identifying the commercial origin of products or services. Classic examples include the thunderous sound of a Harley Davidson (though it appears that that this registration failed in the US after severe opposition), MGM’s roar of a lion etc. For a collection

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SpicyIP: On Patent Pools and Cross Licensing

/ By / Innovation

As old as Grandmas sewing machine, the Patent Pool concept is seen finding popular application in recent times across various industry sectors. Nothing unduly complex about the mechanism that can be simply explained as an arrangement wherein a group of patent right holders arrive at an understanding to cross license and pool in their patent assets in complementary manner and apply it towards a common goal. Aggregation and Collective management of IP assets in short is what is is. One

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Obviousness: A Paradigm Shift? – Part II

/ By / Patent

In the first part of this post, I had discussed the standard of obviousness as laid down by KSR and explained the difference between the “obvious to try” and “obviousness” standards, advocating for the most part adherence to the latter. In this part, we shall analyse Angiotech to see for ourselves if there has been a divagation from KSR. Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc v. Conor Medsystems Inc (2008)Forum: House of Lords, United KingdomDefendant-Appellant- Patentee: Angiotech Pharmaceuticals IncPlaintiff-Respondent: Conor Medsystems IncDecision: Appeal

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Obviousness: A Paradigm Shift? – Part I

/ By / Patent

First things first, SpicyIP wishes its readers a very happy Independence day!Restatements sometimes, rather most of the time, help us understand concepts better and may even lead to new theories. This is particularly true of the concept of obviousness; though obviousness has been the subject-matter of quite a number of decisions and disquisitions, every subsequent judicial pronouncement brings out a feature of its mien which hasn’t been dealt with before or which when restated brings out a new perspective. This

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Celebrating Independence Day: Freedom from Trade Protection?

/ By / Uncategorized

SpicyIP wishes its readers a very happy independence day. In a previous post, we highlighted a US guideline that appeared to possess all the trappings of a trade protectionist measure. Gauri Kamath has an interesting article on this theme in the Businessworld, which I reproduce below. She quotes David Perla, co-CEO of New York’s Pangea3, a leading LPO that employs lawyers in India, as stating that the guideline will not really have any significant impact on Indian service providers. (Perhaps)

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Supreme Court delivers judgment in a case under the Designs Act

/ By / Design

In May this year Shamnad had blogged about how the Supreme Court was on an ‘IP Roll’ since it had rendered three IP related judgments in that month itself. Well here is another Supreme Court decision from the month of May. In this case of Bharat Glass Tubes Ltd. v. Gopal Glass Works Ltd. the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the single judge of the Calcutta High Court to reverse an order passed by the Asst. Controller of Patents

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