May 2015

Job Vacancy for Policy Associate (Internet Governance) at The Centre for Internet and Society

/ By / Sponsored

The Centre for Internet and Society is seeking an individual with a strong background in legal research and policy work to be part of our Internet governance (IG) programme. This position deals with freedom of expression and Internet governance at both the national and international levels. Note:This is a full-time position, based out of Bangalore (strongly preferred) or New Delhi. There is currently one vacancy for this post. The candidate must have the following skills: Knowledge of Indian and international […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit : Khoday Breweries loses in Battle of the Whiskies

/ By / Trademark

Following opposition from global scotch whisky giant Chivas Holdings Ltd against the Khoday Breweries’ registered trademark “Royal Pipers”, the Intellectual Property Board(IPAB), Chennai recently ordered “Royal Pipers” removal from the trademark registry – by reason that it appears to bear a rather strikingly deceptive resemblance to Chivas’ own “100 Pipers” brand Although the “100 pipers” trademark has been in use all over the world since 1949, it came to be registered by Chivas Holdings in India only in 1964 under

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Google’s Patent Purchase Promotion: Overarching concerns

/ By / Patent

“He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Over the course of my previous post, I questioned the mismatch between Google’s ostensible goal of eliminating patent trolls from the market, and its chosen means of achieving this end – purchasing patents from small inventors at a large scale in a

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National IPR Policy – Who Makes it in India?!

/ By / Innovation, Others, Overlaps in IP, Patent

[Long post ahead. But it mostly consists of a timeline of events regarding formation of / comments on Indian IP policy over the last 9 months – a timeline that paints a very worrying picture!]. [Editor’s note: Minor additions have been made to the timeline based on comments received – 6/5/2015] Last week, in an email Shamnad sent to our subscribers, as well as in my post “Modi shames India, calls patent laws under-developed“, we noted how Modi’s referral to

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 25 – May 3)

/ By / Others

In another exciting and busy week for SpicyIP, our Highlight of the Week was Swaraj’s extremely well-written post on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments on the Indian patent regime. Discussing certain quotes from speeches recently made by PM Modi, who stated that Indian patent laws need to be brought up to ‘international standards’, he places them in stark contrast with the previous position of the government, which strongly supported the current patent law regime. He focuses specifically on the pharmaceuticals

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Google’s new anti-troll strategy: streamlining the patent market or just beefing up its own portfolio?

/ By / Patent

In the fight against patent trolls, Google seems to be pulling out all the stops with a new strategy – the Patent Purchase Promotion, announced on its Public Policy blog last week. The plan, essentially, is simple: Google creates a “streamlined portal” through which inventors (and pretty much anyone who holds the right to a patent) can submit patents they’re willing to sell, along with a price tag of sorts. Google then evaluates the submissions, buys the patents they want

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Petition to Save the Handlooms Reservation Act, 1985

/ By / Traditional Knowledge

Change.org is presently carrying an interesting petition addressed to the Prime Minister of India- one that is lobbying against the repeal of the Handlooms Reservation Act, 1985. The Handlooms Reservation Act is a small and innocous looking legislation (available here). The crux of this Act is S. 5 which prohibits the production of reserved articles by any loom other than a handloom. This provides a degree of protection for handloom weavers and their products. However, it appears that there is

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Yale’s Innovation Law Beyond IP 2: Conference Highlights

/ By / Innovation, Overlaps in IP

Over the last weekend of March, Yale Law School hosted the second edition of its Innovation Law Beyond IP conference. The conference offers a refreshing new perspective on issues across the board arising out of the interplay between innovation and the law. While traditional discourse has focussed itself largely on how IP law regulates and distributes the benefits arising out of innovation, the conference dealt with broader concerns, turning into a platform for extremely interesting ideas. Since technology policy is

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