The week with the Dasatinib CL Controversy
The week’s SpicyIP highlight of the week was Shamnad Sir’s post on the Dasatinib CL controversy. He writes about the various methods that are available to get an otherwise unaffordable drug within the reach of the masses and also brings to light a scoop that we had obtained containing a few questions that the DIPP had asked the Health Ministry, strongly indicating a restrictive interpretation of S.92. He concludes his post wondering why more generic companies have not resorted to action under S.84 for a compulsory license.
Anubha’s post, that began the week, was equally important to the Indian IP ecosystem. She summarised the various comments received by the USTR for their Out of Cycle Review on India’s IP Policy. Prominent commenters included the IPA, James Love, Srividhya Raghavan and Bayer among others. The comments display faith in the Indian IP system, particularly with regards to its handling of pharmaceutical patents, allowing cheaper access to drugs.
Two tidbits followed this post, the first was by Gopika reporting that the prolific Kannada writer Niranjana’s works have been released on Wikisource under a free license. She writes that this is part of an effort by the Kannada Wikimedia community and CIS and may be the single largest collection of any author’s work available under an Open Source license. The second was by Devika, posting on the John Doe order that was granted to SanDisk to restrain infringement of their trademark by “fly by night operators” who were selling counterfeit goods.
Our next post was a congratulatory post dedicated to Shamnad sir. He has been awarded the Infosys Prize, 2014 for his work in IP as well as in legal education. As a member and a mentor to us at the team here in SpicyIP, Shamnad sir has definitely helped take the blog to new heights, even earning praise from a mind like Amartya Sen for the balanced and holistic approach of the blog.
The perfect example of too little, too late is the subject of our next tidbit. Prof N.S. Gopalakrishnan was reinstated as the MHRD IP Chair at the CUSAT. After the fairly outrageous dismissals of Prof Gopalakrishnan and Prof Pai last year, this action comes without apology or remorse and is perhaps CUSAT’s response to the MHRD’s pressure, writes Swaraj.
Devika reported next on the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) deciding to slash the prices of popular medicines for stress, hypertension, HIV, pain and pneumonia. The move seeks to cover as many as 100 new drugs and would apply to drugs of varying strengths, she writes. Swaraj had the last post of the week, expressing the view that the Intellectual Property Owners Association arranging a series of exclusive meetings with members of the Indian Judiciary, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, Custom officials and Intellectual Property Offices in Delhi and Chennai, might lead to some concern.
Events:
- The 9th Pan European Intellectual Property Summit, 2014 organised by the think tank, Premier Cercle at Brussels is to be held on December 4th & 5th. It will feature 130+ speakers and 600+ delegates from 50+ countries.
- The Lawyers’ Collective Training Workshop on Patent Oppositions for Law Students, organised by the Lawyers’ Collective is to be held on the 20th of December, 2014. The workshop will focus on drafting and filing patent oppositions on key lifesaving medicines in public interest. The last date for applying is November 16th.
Stories that caught our attention:
Swaraj’s concern with regards to the visit of the IPO was voiced by a number of other people, in a letter to Chief Justice Dattu, reports IPWatch.
