World IP Day: Launching the SpicyIP Website

May this day bring us together to commemorate the value of intellectual property rights.

May this day also help us appreciate that intellectual property rights are but “trees” in the “wood” of innovation and creativity …lest we miss the wood for the trees.

May this day help us transition from IP extremism towards a “middle path” position that balances the interest of various IP stakeholders appropriately.

May this day help us cement our commitment to achieving greater transparency in IP policies/institutions.

Last, but not the least, may this day help unleash our creative and innovative juices.

On this historic day, a number of IP related activities are planned around the world and you can get an overview of them on the WIPO website. WIPO itself has decided to focus on the theme of “green innovation” to celebrate this day.

As promised, on this momentous day, SpicyIP brings you two humble offerings:

A. One is a petition to help increase transparency at the Indian patent office.

I will post a separate note on this, including a link to the electronic petition, for which we require your support and signatures. Our last post on this theme also carried a short note on the legality or otherwise of patent related publications. If possible, please do send in your comments by this evening, so that we can incorporate them before finalising and putting this up for your signatures.

B. Our second surprise offering to you is the SpicyIP website!

This website aims to decode Indian IP and increase transparency around IP debates by interalia hosting IP materials that are not otherwise easily accessible.

Secondly, in keeping with our commitment to further “open access” to IP materials, all the content will be free, as far as possible.

SpicyIP Resources

We hope to ramp up our offerings on the IP Resources page. At the moment, we have the following:

i) The Ayyangar Committee Report:

As many of you know, this report formed the backbone of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 and is lauded as perhaps one of the best “policy” documents to come out of India. For those interested in the importance of this report and how it continues to influence the Indian Patent Office, see my article in the IPQ titled “Policy Style Reasoning at the Indian Patent Office”.

Unfortunately, there are very limited copies of this report available. And to the best of my knowledge, not a single electronic version is available. We therefore hope that this publication will provide for more informed IP debates in future.

nb: Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we’ve been able to upload only part of the report. We promise to bring you a complete version in the next 10 days or so.

ii) The Patents Act, 1970 (as amended upto 2005):

As many of you know, there is no online copy of the complete version of the Indian patents act (i.e. the 1970 Act, as amended upto 2005). Rather, what we have is the 1970 Act and a separate version of the 2005 amendments.

We bring you the first such comprehensive version–so you don’t need to waste your time clubbing the 2005 amendment with the existing copy of the Act.

iii) High Court order in the Ramkumar vs Samsung Case:

This order from the Madras High Court issued pursuant to a writ filed by Ramkumar alleging that the customs authorities were not acting upon his application to seize all cell phones that used his allegedly patented dual SIM technology. The order directs the customs authorities to apply the law.

Kruttika will bring you a post on this order, as also other related developments in the Ramkumar vs Samsung case, something that we have been tracking on this blog.

iv) An article from the India Business Law Review:

This excellent article by Vandana Chatlani reviews the economic downturn and what this means for Indian IP.

For those not in the know, the India Business Law Journal (IBLJ) is perhaps the leading magazine on Indian legal issues today and has a terrific collection of high quality articles. Incidentally, this legal magazine has been running a transparency campaign of another kind focussing on Indian law firms, hoping to bring to light aspects such as the salaries offered by law firms and revenues made by them etc. Certainly a more uphill task than our attempt to get the government to make more “patent information” available.

More information about our website offerings are on the “About Us” Page, extracts of which I reproduce below:

“SpicyIP aims to be a leading repository of information/resources pertaining to Indian intellectual property (IP) law and policy. To this end, it will strive to make available intellectual property decisions (from the courts and other IP authorities such as the patent office and the IPAB), intellectual property statutes/rules and parliamentary reports that are not otherwise accessible.

It is committed to enriching the public domain and in furthering principles of open access. All its materials will therefore be provided free of charge. In order to help us in this endeavour, we ask that our readers/viewers please share with us any IP material that they might have which is not otherwise known to the public or easily available.

Although SpicyIP asserts copyright over the specific materials that it creates (analysis of leading cases etc), it permits copying under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India license.

….Another unique feature of SpicyIP is CLIPP, a platform whereby members of the public can participate in IP policy making, in a style that is somewhat similar to the open source innovation model for software.”

Naturally, none of this would have been possible without your ardent support and encouragement. In fact, it was your spirited encouragement that “incentivised” us to create this resource in the first place.

The only thing that we ask for in return is that you let us know what you think of the website. And in particular, please let us know how we can improve.

Lastly, since we’re seeking to build up a repository of IP resources not otherwise found, may we please request you to send us any IP materials that you have in your possession and which you’d be kind enough to share. Thank you very much.