August 2016

Injured Induna Comes to Patel’s Court in John Doe Matter

/ By / Copyright

In some of our earlier posts, we have covered the traumatic story of Mr. Adarsh Agarwal, the proprietor of the website ‘www.induna.com’ that was blocked under the Bombay High Court’s John Doe order in the Great Grand Masti (“GGM”) case. In the latest order issued in this case the day before, Justice Patel acted on an e-mail received by him from Induna and has handed over its copies to the lawyer of the plaintiff, Balaji Motion Pictures as well as […]

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SpicyIP Jobs: Patent Engineers, Agents and Attorneys at Clairvolex

/ By / Others

SpicyIP is happy to announce that Clairvolex, as part of its global expansion, is setting up an Expert Center (EC) in Bangalore, India and is looking to hire patent engineers, patent agents and patent attorneys for it. This will be the company’s fourth EC after Gurgaon, IN, Salt Lake City, UT and Seattle, WA. The goal is to build expert teams to handle global patent portfolio development and patent monetization functions. The EC team in Bangalore will be led by

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Of Bollywood “Blocks” and John Does: Towards an IP Ombudsman?

/ By / Copyright

In a recent piece in the Wire, I develop the idea of a “neutral IP ombudsman” for “blocking” disputes. For background, do see our posts on the various John Doe orders and the corrective balance being ushered in through the Bombay High Court (and Justice Patel in particular). What a terrific moment in IP history to see our courts coming up with creative ideas to blunt the rough edges around John Doe’s and strike a balance between IP enforcement and public

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National IPR Policy: Taking IPR to the grassroots

/ By / Innovation

Post the creation of the National IPR Policy in May 2016, a series of road shows were conducted in June – July 2016 by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP).  These roadshows were conducted to create awareness about the Intellectual Property Rights as per the objectives of the National IPR Policy. The Policy may be accessed by clicking here. The DIPP invited several industry bodies, associations etc. to provide their comments on the outreach program.  In a meeting held on

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Busting a Baloney: Merely Viewing Blocked Websites Will Not Land You in Jail!

/ By / Copyright

Fear-mongering and the Internet often go hand in hand. Throw in Bollywood, copyright and blocking John Doe orders and you have exciting drama as well! One that played out to the hilt yesterday, as a number of media houses reported that merely viewing a “blocked” website in India could get you jailed! Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately for aggressive IP enforcers), this is not true! But first a bit of background. Blocked Message from ISP’s: In a news report the day before,

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A case study which deals with trademark infringement: Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited v. M/S R.S. Sales Corporation & Anr.

/ By / Trademark

At the outset, this (uncomplicated) case law (Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited vs R.S. Sales Corporation & Anr on 28 July 2016) doesn’t set out or provide clarification on any point of law. Further, this is not a final Order. It makes the previously issued interim order absolute during the pendency of the suit. Even then, this judgment, to my mind, gives insights pertaining to discerning and devising strategies, presents an indicative list as to what to do and what not to

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Bottling Fame, Brewing Glory and Taxing the Transfer of IP Licences

/ By / Patent, Trademark

A recently pronounced Bombay HC judgement is the latest in a long line of cases dealing with the taxation of licences to use intangible property, with the preceding chapter being written by the same court in Tata Sons v. State of Maharashtra. Given the number of sharply conflicting decisions at the High Court level, it is safe to say that the legal questions at issue have been the subject of as much jurisprudence as juris-imprudence in the past. We’ve covered Tata

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (August 15-21)

/ By / Others

Our thematic highlight of this week is a 2-part post by Balaji in which he analyzes the consequences of 3 TRIPS+ free trade agreements for India from the vantage point of IP and the digital economy: the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). In the first post Balaji tabulates the standards that these agreements mandate and examines whether or not Indian law is in consonance with these standards. Finally,

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The curious case of Peter Doig: Can authors disavow their works?

/ By / Copyright

Last month, news emerged of a bizarre case in New York in which Peter Doig, a renowned painter denied having created the above painting. He didn’t have much to say when he was shown a picture of it – ‘Nice painting’, he said – ‘Not by me’. Since his paintings routinely sell for an upwards of $10 million, it is no surprise that Robert Fletcher, the owner of the painting filed a lawsuit against Doig. He claims damages of $5

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Its all about the shape – design infringement and passing off

/ By / Design, Trademark

Just like other aspects of civilisation and life, shapes too had humble beginnings. The clean and simple – circles, squares and triangles, the most basic shapes of our planet, laid the foundation for today’s complicated designs and patterns. Also, as we have heard, shapes were used to communicate and as part of a language in early civilisation. While shapes today have evolved and become more numerous and complicated, they are still a language in themselves and are certainly still a

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