The SpicyIP Story of the Week is Thomas’ post on the defamation notice sent by Anil Ambani against Advocate Prashant Bhushan’s junior. The lawyer had written a blog post that carried a complaint filed by Bhushan alleging that Ambani was carrying out money laundering activities. As the notice also addressed Google and asked them to take the content down, Thomas discussed the IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 that mandate Google to do so (to avoid intermediary liability) and the free speech implications of the same. Thomas’ post also touched upon the unfortunate phenomenon of the rise of SLAPP suits.
This week also saw Devika’s post on the decision in People Interactive v. Gaurav Jerry. It was a case involving a domain name dispute. The term ‘meta tagging’ was defined for the first time in this decision, and it was also held that it is not necessary for the plaintiffs to seek leave under Clause XIV of the Letters Patent where the website is interactive in nature.
Further, we brought to you the news that SpicyIP has been named in Managing IP’s 2014 list of Most Influential People in IP worldwide. We once again take this opportunity to thank our readers for their continued support.
We announced two SpicyIP Events this week-
1) On August 1 and 2, the 3rd Annual Legal Era IPR Conclave & Awards on “IPR: Global Innovation and Growth will be announced. The panels and nominees can be found here.
2) On August 1, PMetrix is organizing a seminar on “TRIZ” also known as “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”. Research & Development heads, Engineering, CTO’S Product Designers, Process Designers & New Product Developers may find this seminar to be of interest. This will be held in Bangalore. Details may be found here.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS:
1) A US District Court has held that Westlaw and Lexis Nexis were within the bounds of Fair Use when reproducing legal briefs on their databases. It was held that as the purpose of providing the briefs for interactive legal research is different than when providing services for the client, it constituted transformative use. Further, the ‘Market Impairment’ test was also used in arriving at this conclusion.
2) The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that creation of temporary copies of copyrighted works on the internet (which we know as ‘caches’)does not amount to infringement.
3) Audio equipment giant Bose has filed a suit for patent infringement against Beats (which is now owned by Apple) alleging that Beats has infringed its patent on noise cancellation technology.
4) ‘Big Biotech’ Company Gilead has signed a license agreement with Medicines Patent Pool (a foundation working towards increasing access to HIV Drugs in developing countries) licensing its investigational drug tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) for HIV and hepatitis B, contingent on the medicine’s U.S. regulatory approval.
I like the weekly review feature. Gives the news in a nutshell for those who don’t have time to read all articles as they are published. International developments section is always interesting too. One request- can it be published on Sunday? Us working professionals can read at leisure.
Thank you for the feedback Prasad.
This was actually part of the original plan for the weekly review section. However, more often than not, it turns out to be difficult for our bloggers to write this up over the weekend period. Nonetheless, as you’ve correctly pointed out that it would make it easier for working professionals to read and follow up on developments, we shall try to work on getting it out on Sundays.