June 2016

Twenty Minutes to Copyright Infringement

/ By / Copyright

We have in the past covered innumerable instances of copyright infringement allegations brought against Bollywood movies either from major Hollywood studios or producers in the south.  To bring yourself up to speed, read about the My Cousin Vinny dispute here, the Knockout dispute here and here, the Ladies v Ricky Bahl controversy here, the Ghajni-Memento controversy here, or the Hitch-Partner dispute here.  The latest to be added to the list is UTV’s recently released mega hit Baaghi, last heard it […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Limit on applications(1000) for expedited patent examination

/ By / Patent

Om Prakash Gupta, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, issued a notice which stated, without any reasoning, that the number of applications for expedited examination of patent applications would be restricted to 1000. Meaning only 1000 requests filed prior to December, 2016 will be entertained. The Controller General has placed such a limit by virtue of the powers invested in him by sub-rule (13) of Rule 24C of the Patent (Amendment) Rules 2016. Ritvik has reviewed the

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Udta Punjab: An IP Controversy [Part I]

/ By / Copyright

Amidst the censorship controversy that had already engulfed Udta Punjab, the movie was leaked online just two days before its scheduled release. What’s more, the leaked torrent bears the “for censor” watermark, indicating that someone from within the censor board leaked the copy online. It has even been speculated that the censor board was trying to seek revenge from the move producers for their censorship victory. While this is not the first time that allegations of piracy have been made

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Inquiry against IPRS: Commission of Inquiry is receiving statements from public

/ By / Copyright

As SpicyIP reported earlier, an Inquiry Officer was appointed to inquire into alleged irregularities in the Indian Performing Rights Society Limited. The Inquiry Officer is deemed to be a Commission of Inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. The scope of inquiry includes non-distribution of royalties by imposing illegal conditions, illegal transfer of mechanical rights and ringtone royalties to PPL, forgery of signature etc. According to public notice issued by MHRD, “Notice is hereby given that all persons having

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Pinocchio d’Pharma: False claims about Tarceva cost Genentech and OSI Pharma $67 Million

/ By / Drug Regulation, Patent

Pharmaceutical giants Genentech Inc. and OSI Pharmaceuticals LLC have coughed up $67 million to finally settle allegations against them under the US False Claims Act of 1863 (FCA). The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a public release that “Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals made misleading representations to physicians and other health care providers about the effectiveness of Tarceva to treat certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer, when there was little evidence to show that Tarceva was effective

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (11 June-18 June)

/ By / Others

As to the Highlight of the Week, we were hard pressed to choose a winner and have a tie between Professor Shamnad Basheer’s timely and hard hitting take on the need to distinguish the merit of a judgement from its length and Balaji Subramanian’s stellar two part post on the constitutionality of state laws that criminalise copyright infringement. The week got off to a flying start with the excellent post by Professor Basheer, originally carried in the Wire, on the

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Why Stairway to Heaven Doesn’t Infringe Taurus Copyright: analysis & demo of “scenes a faire” motif common to both

/ By / Copyright

Here’s a guest post on the Stairway to Heaven copyright litigation by Sean O’Connor. He is the Boeing International Professor at the University of Washington School of Law (Seattle). He is also Chair of the Center for Advanced Study and Research on Innovation Policy and Faculty Director of the Cannabis Law & Policy Project. This is a condensed version of a longer post he wrote for his blog. Jimmy Page brought his guitar to court to defend a passage that forms

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Subramanian Swamy and the Constitutionality of Copyright Criminalisation – Part II

/ By / Copyright

(Summary: disproportionate criminal sanctions against copyright infringement seriously harm FoE interests -> to be constitutionally valid, copyright criminalisation must fall within the bounds of Art. 19(2)’s enumerated grounds -> the “public order” exception requires that the offending conduct must have a proximate potential to disrupt the even tempo of life -> neither of these requirements are met -> no other Art. 19(2) exception is attracted -> disproportionate copyright criminalisation is unconstitutional) Continuing from Part I, in this post I argue

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Subramanian Swamy and the Constitutionality of Copyright Criminalisation – Part I

/ By / Copyright

(Summary: Lessons from Subramanian Swamy v. UoI -> constitutional validity of Goonda Acts -> interplay between freedom of speech and copyright law -> addressing the argument that copyright law contains built-in safeguards that shields it from constitutional scrutiny -> idea-expression dichotomy is too weak to be of use -> fair use does not align with free speech interests -> independent constitutional scrutiny of the balancing of proprietary and free speech interests is justified) Last month brought us the Supreme Court’s

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The not so happy stories e-books tell you

/ By / Copyright

The rise of e-books in the past decade or so has brought about path breaking changes in the preferences of readers as well as in the way publishing industry does business with authors and end customers. Moreover, their rise has re-modelled many of the conventional practices one associates with the publication and sale of a book. An instance of this is highlighted in a recent post on techdirt.com, which points out the lack of transparency, in the payment of royalty

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