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This week has understandably been a little slow in terms of the posts, given most of the team are busy just like the readers to celebrate the end of yet another eventful year.
Prashant started it off with the announcement of a taxation law conference jointly hosted by NLSIU, Bangalore and Tax India Online, due to be held on January 6, 2013 at Bangalore, which will be focusing on the developments since the proposed introduction of General Anti-Avoidance Rule in the Finance Act, 2012.
This was followed by another post by Prashant, wherein he’s strongly criticized the boycott of Justice Valmiki Mehta of Delhi High Court by the DHCBA and physical barricading by the DHCBA members of the doors of Justice Mehta’s courtroom. The grounds that so far have been advanced for said boycott, including Justice Mehta’s ‘excessive harshness in imposing costs on an unprecedented scale’ and his ‘demeanour on the Bench being wanting of his august office’, appear to be flimsy at best.
Yet another post by Prashant stands next in queue, this time containing a critical analysis of the Draft Guidelines on Biotechnology Patents proposed by the Indian Patent Office, highlighting issues such as morality patents, bar against patenting of micro-organisms, therapeutic efficacy u/s. 3(d) and method of treatment patents.
Next in line is a guest post by Madhulika Vishwanathan in the Spicy IP Fellowship Post Series, wherein she has referred to few landmark judgments in 2012 pertaining to the Indian pharmaceutical patent industry, including the grant of compulsory license to Natco Pharma, revocation of the Sunitinib patent owned by Pfizer/Sugen, the Roche-Cipla patent infringement suit, revocation of India’s first pharmaceutical product patent etc. Mention was also made of global efforts towards harmonization of patent laws, such as the US Patent Reform Act and the EU Unitary Patent System.
Finally, I had put up a brief post highlighting a decision by the Indian Patent Office to grant a patent to the polymorph of a known substance, overcoming the objections u/s. 3(d) on the ground that the said polymorph has improved the therapeutic efficacy of the original form.
International News
In the familiar Samsung-Apple tussle, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender has recommended a ban on Samsung imports of the infringing products and specified a high bond (88% of the value of the infringing products) Samsung has to post if the ban is enforced and Samsung still wished to keep selling the products during a 60- day period when President Obama could overturn the ban. However, by way of a breather to Samsung, Apple has agreed to drop Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini from the patent lawsuit, after Samsung said it was not offering to sell the product in the crucial U.S. market.
Meanwhile, Apple has filed for a patent for an invention improving the overall functionality of a stylus. Termed Active Stylus, it describes a process by which a stylus, outfitted with an electrode at the tip, can interact with a “capacitive touch sensor panel” and allow users to tap around on menus, buttons, and text fields. The objective is thus to improve accuracy while maintaining costs.
Asahi Kasei Corp.’s Zoll unit has filed a suit against Royal Philips Electronics’ Respironics Inc. before the US District Court of Delaware, alleging infringement of a U.S. patent with equipment used to monitor patients being treated for sleep-disordered breathing.
The readers, who’re also avid gamers and regular users of the Nintendo Wii video game console, may be interested to know that the company has recently been granted a patent on a technology that makes it possible to present a 360-degree panoramic view of a scene displayed on the game controller.
In the gaming technology front, Intel has received a patent on a technology that could help prevent some accidents caused by too-vigorous players of computer games. The technology will allow sensors to be put in the console that detect the bodily movement of the user and the proximity of surrounding objects.
In the Middle-Eastern region, a comprehensive Published Patent Search Service (PPSS) has recently been launched by the AMMAN-Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property, which would determine patents’ availability for use and registration and evaluate whether such patents conflict with previously existing rights owned by third parties.
In copyright developments, Sylvester Stallone has successfully defended an infringement suit brought against his action-packed movie Expendables by Marcus Webb of Stamford, Connecticut, who’d claimed that the movie infringed the copyrights for a screenplay he had written.
Finally, Microsoft has won a suit in U.K. against Motorola, invalidating the latter’s patent protection for technology synchronizing message statuses across multiple devices on the ground of obviousness of technology used.
Last but not the least, in true celebratory spirit, IP Watchdog’s Gene Quinn and Angel Krippner have come up with a witty list of patentable inventions suitable for the New Year’s Eve celebrations, including safety champagne cork, device for launching confetti, noisemakers etc.
That’s all for this week, folks. The Spicy IP team wishes you a very happy 2013 and hopes to make it worthwhile by delivering a lot of spicy IP news and developments right to your screen.
Prashant started it off with the announcement of a taxation law conference jointly hosted by NLSIU, Bangalore and Tax India Online, due to be held on January 6, 2013 at Bangalore, which will be focusing on the developments since the proposed introduction of General Anti-Avoidance Rule in the Finance Act, 2012.
This was followed by another post by Prashant, wherein he’s strongly criticized the boycott of Justice Valmiki Mehta of Delhi High Court by the DHCBA and physical barricading by the DHCBA members of the doors of Justice Mehta’s courtroom. The grounds that so far have been advanced for said boycott, including Justice Mehta’s ‘excessive harshness in imposing costs on an unprecedented scale’ and his ‘demeanour on the Bench being wanting of his august office’, appear to be flimsy at best.
Yet another post by Prashant stands next in queue, this time containing a critical analysis of the Draft Guidelines on Biotechnology Patents proposed by the Indian Patent Office, highlighting issues such as morality patents, bar against patenting of micro-organisms, therapeutic efficacy u/s. 3(d) and method of treatment patents.
Next in line is a guest post by Madhulika Vishwanathan in the Spicy IP Fellowship Post Series, wherein she has referred to few landmark judgments in 2012 pertaining to the Indian pharmaceutical patent industry, including the grant of compulsory license to Natco Pharma, revocation of the Sunitinib patent owned by Pfizer/Sugen, the Roche-Cipla patent infringement suit, revocation of India’s first pharmaceutical product patent etc. Mention was also made of global efforts towards harmonization of patent laws, such as the US Patent Reform Act and the EU Unitary Patent System.
Finally, I had put up a brief post highlighting a decision by the Indian Patent Office to grant a patent to the polymorph of a known substance, overcoming the objections u/s. 3(d) on the ground that the said polymorph has improved the therapeutic efficacy of the original form.
International News
In the familiar Samsung-Apple tussle, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender has recommended a ban on Samsung imports of the infringing products and specified a high bond (88% of the value of the infringing products) Samsung has to post if the ban is enforced and Samsung still wished to keep selling the products during a 60- day period when President Obama could overturn the ban. However, by way of a breather to Samsung, Apple has agreed to drop Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini from the patent lawsuit, after Samsung said it was not offering to sell the product in the crucial U.S. market.
Meanwhile, Apple has filed for a patent for an invention improving the overall functionality of a stylus. Termed Active Stylus, it describes a process by which a stylus, outfitted with an electrode at the tip, can interact with a “capacitive touch sensor panel” and allow users to tap around on menus, buttons, and text fields. The objective is thus to improve accuracy while maintaining costs.
Asahi Kasei Corp.’s Zoll unit has filed a suit against Royal Philips Electronics’ Respironics Inc. before the US District Court of Delaware, alleging infringement of a U.S. patent with equipment used to monitor patients being treated for sleep-disordered breathing.
The readers, who’re also avid gamers and regular users of the Nintendo Wii video game console, may be interested to know that the company has recently been granted a patent on a technology that makes it possible to present a 360-degree panoramic view of a scene displayed on the game controller.
In the gaming technology front, Intel has received a patent on a technology that could help prevent some accidents caused by too-vigorous players of computer games. The technology will allow sensors to be put in the console that detect the bodily movement of the user and the proximity of surrounding objects.
In the Middle-Eastern region, a comprehensive Published Patent Search Service (PPSS) has recently been launched by the AMMAN-Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property, which would determine patents’ availability for use and registration and evaluate whether such patents conflict with previously existing rights owned by third parties.
In copyright developments, Sylvester Stallone has successfully defended an infringement suit brought against his action-packed movie Expendables by Marcus Webb of Stamford, Connecticut, who’d claimed that the movie infringed the copyrights for a screenplay he had written.
Finally, Microsoft has won a suit in U.K. against Motorola, invalidating the latter’s patent protection for technology synchronizing message statuses across multiple devices on the ground of obviousness of technology used.
Last but not the least, in true celebratory spirit, IP Watchdog’s Gene Quinn and Angel Krippner have come up with a witty list of patentable inventions suitable for the New Year’s Eve celebrations, including safety champagne cork, device for launching confetti, noisemakers etc.
That’s all for this week, folks. The Spicy IP team wishes you a very happy 2013 and hopes to make it worthwhile by delivering a lot of spicy IP news and developments right to your screen.
