2011 – Page 36

Wikileaks on ACTA’s development

February 12, 2011 / By Swaraj Paul Barooah / Uncategorized

Wikileaks: Giving a helping handImage from here Wikileaks, which first brought our attention to the ACTA back in mid 2008, has now brought attention to the history of how the ACTA came about. Expectedly, it shows that there had been explicit communication regarding the eventual imposition of TRIPS plus standards on developing countries. Somewhat surprisingly however, it appears that the EU behaved as rather weak negotiating party and were not completely happy with how the events unfolded. La Quadrature du Net has come out […]

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Outsourcing Indian Patent Searches to CSIR: Insourcing Conflict?

February 12, 2011 / By Shamnad Basheer / Uncategorized

As many of you in the patent line may have heard, the Indian Patent Office has begun to outsource its prior art searches to CSIR, India’s largest public funded patentee. As expected, the move comes with its fair share of controversy. Is there a conflict? Will the walls of our esteemed neighbours help quell the possibility that CSIR acts in a biased manner against its competitors, existing or potential? Could CSIR take the plea that it anyway acts in national

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The ‘Numbers’ continue to talk – PPL’s revenues from mobile ringtones has zoomed up by 1857% in 6 years; from Rs. 7 crores to Rs. 137 crores

February 12, 2011 / By Prashant Reddy / Copyright

Pursuant to the incomplete information being submitted by the Copyright Office, in response to our repeated RTI requests, I decided to try and source the information from the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), which I must say is remarkably well stocked, albeit a little disorganized. Our previous posts on these RTI applications can be accessed over here and here. Image from here. We now have the annual revenues of Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) from the year 2005

The ‘Numbers’ continue to talk – PPL’s revenues from mobile ringtones has zoomed up by 1857% in 6 years; from Rs. 7 crores to Rs. 137 crores Read More »

SpicyIP Jobs: Legal professional for Pharma Company

February 11, 2011 / By Sumathi Chandrasekharan / Uncategorized

A Leading Pharmaceutical Company seeks to hire a legal professional with 2-4 years experience. The profile involves handling legal compliance for the company and drafting and vetting of manufacturing and distribution agreements for international customers. A professional with previous experience in a Pharmaceutical, FMCG or Manufacturing company will be preferred. The position is based in Mumbai. If you are keen to apply or know about this role please contact Emerald Amara by email ([email protected]) or call on 022 40350900. If

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RTIs reveal intense battle between Registrar of Copyrights and IPRS, over release of royalties to lyricists and composers

February 10, 2011 / By Prashant Reddy / Copyright

As mentioned in an earlier post of mine this morning the CPIO of the Copyright Office finally sent us half the information that we had requested for under the Right to Information Act, 2005. Appended to one of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) Annual Reports was a treasure trove of information in the form of a string of correspondence, throughout the year 2009, between lyricists, composers, the Registrar of Copyright and IPRS. The correspondence shows us the intensity of

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Copyright Office provides PPL’s Annual Report for 08-09; Rs. 100 crores earned from ringtone and web streaming!

February 10, 2011 / By Prashant Reddy / Uncategorized

Subsequent to our last post on the RTI applications pertaining to Copyright Societies and a brief email exchange with the Copyright Office, the Registrar of Copyrights Mr. G.R Raghavender, who is also the Appellate Authority under the RTI Act, swung into action to ensure that the CPIO dispatched the requested information to us.Image from here. The CPIO has sent us the following reports today:(i) Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) Reports for 2005-06, which was already given to us the last time;

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‘MANJAL’ REMOVED FROM TRADE MARK REGISTRY

February 9, 2011 / By Mathews P. George / Trademark

The mark “Manjal” was removed from the trade marks registry vide Order dated 21st January, 2011. “Manjal” is the Malayalam / Tamil translation for turmeric / haldi (in Hindi). It was registered by M/s Oriental Extractions Pvt. Ltd in Class – 3 for “ayurvedic bath soap”. The instant application for rectification was filed by Mr. S. Sivasubramanyan, Proprietor of M/s Divine Pharmaceuticals, Kollam before Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks. Interestingly, none appeared for the registered proprietor. This Order will have

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Enercon GmBH admits to invalid patents before the U.K. Courts but defends the same before the IPAB

February 9, 2011 / By Prashant Reddy / Uncategorized

Subsequent to our earlier posts on the Enercon patent litigation, we’ve received information that two of the European equivalents, of patents revoked by the IPAB, were also revoked by a High Court in the U.K., four years ago, during the course of litigation between Dr. Wobben (Owner of Enercon GmBh) and Vestas-Celtic Wind Technology Ltd. A third patent revocation is still pending before the IPAB. The most striking feature of this judgment is that it records that Dr. Wobben has

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Lending an ‘Indian perspective’ to Enercon GmBH’s propaganda in the German Press

February 7, 2011 / By Prashant Reddy / Uncategorized

The Enercon patent dispute is fast acquiring political overtones, atleast in Germany, with sections of the German Press reporting that German legislators have started making enquiries with the federal government on the Enercon dispute. In addition, the same newspapers have been attributing the voiding of Enercon GmBH’s patents to possible corruption in the Indian system. Of course this comes along with the rider that there is no evidence of the same. I wonder who has been spreading these rumours, especially

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RTIs against Copyright Societies partially successfull

In the backdrop of the Copyright Amendment Bill, 2010 I thought it would be interesting to get some data on actual numbers involved in the music industry especially the Copyright Societies. Therefore in July, 2010 I had sent the Copyright Office a RTI asking for Rule 14P information (for the years 2005-2010), that is required to be filed on an annual basis by the Copyright Societies – Phonographic Performance Ltd. (PPL) and Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS). Initially the Central

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