August 2016

Blast from the Past: Krishna Sobti v. Amrita Pritam

/ By / Copyright

In this post, we revive an earlier series initiated by Devika titled “Blast from the Past”. Read here, here, here and here. No discussion of Indian literature is complete without the mention of Amrita Pritam and Krishna Sobti, two towering creative personalities. These women represent a new generation of women in literature, unafraid of speaking their mind, and unapologetic about portraying female sexuality. Both wrote of the horrors of partition, of politics and religion. Here, we take a trip down memory […]

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ISRA’s Dubious Victory before the Delhi High Court

/ By / Copyright

On August 12, 2016 Justice S. Murlidhar of the Delhi High Court passed a short 8 page final judgment restraining a Delhi food establishment from infringing the performing rights being administered by the Indian Singers’ Right Association (ISRA). This judgment is the first judicial victory for the performer’s society since it was was registered by the Registrar of Copyrights under the Copyright Act, 1957. The first lawsuit is always the most crucial lawsuit for new performing societies like ISRA because

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Woman fills up museum crossword art work and claims copyright!

/ By / Copyright

What started off as an innocuous day out at the museum turned out to be a not-so-happy rendezvous with avant garde art for a 90 year old woman in Germany. While modern art can be confusing and leave much to imagination, the piece in question did nothing of that sort and was clear in what it stood for. It was an art work resembling a crossword puzzle with an instruction to its side, which read “insert words”. Perhaps heaving a

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The “Sun Control” Mark

/ By / Trademark

Given that most of today’s judges grew up in the era of Amitabh’s ‘Angry Young Man’ and laconic western protagonists, it is rather strange to see so many judgments play such a significant role in aiding deforestation. Even more concerning is that when it comes to comprehensibility, judges seem to be far more influenced by Gulzar’s indecipherable lyrics than Vijay’s sharp dialogue delivery. Thankfully, Justice Patel keeps it short and simple. Before I make this piece about my undying love

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ET invites comments on an article on GM technology licensing in India

/ By / Patent

The Economic Times has invited public comments on an article, titled “GoI must not interfere between GM technology providers and licensees”, published in yesterday’s edition of the newspaper. This article has been written by Dr. C.S. Prakash, a professor at the Plant Genetics and Genomics department of Tuskegee University in the US. Licensing of GM technology is one of the most contentious IP issues in India today. We have covered it here and here. Our readers are encouraged to participate

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SpicyIP Jobs: Research Fellow at ARCIALA, SMU (School of Law)

/ By / Others

SpicyIP is happy to announce an exciting opportunity for scholars interested in working on Asian and comparative IP law: the Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA) at the School of Law, Singapore Management University has an opening for a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. The Centre was inaugurated in May 2015, recognising the growth potential of Asia and the need for effective and practical policies to channel this potential by encouraging creativity and innovation. It aims to

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SpicyIP Events: ARCIALA’s IPScholars Asia Conference

/ By / Event

We are happy to announce that The Advanced Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA), School of Law, Singapore Management University has put out a call for papers for its 2nd Works-in-Progress Conference “IPScholars Asia” on February 23-24, 2017. The Conference website can be accessed over here. An excerpt from the call is reproduced below: Call for Papers and Paper Submissions Scholars who are interested in presenting their works-in-progress at the Second Works-in-Progress Conference “IPScholars Asia”

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TataSky v. YouTube – Fuzzy Signals on the Protection of TPMs

/ By / Copyright

In one of the first cases of its kind in India, YouTube was recently taken to Court by TataSky for hosting videos that taught people how to circumvent the encryption on the latter’s Set-Top-Boxes (STBs). The procedural history of the case is slightly confusing, as I explain below, but the important provisions are Section 66 of the IT Act and Section 65A of the Copyright Act, the latter being the provisions protecting Technological Protection Measures. [Long post ahead] Case History

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The “Superhero” Trade Mark

/ By / Trademark

Around two months ago, DC and Marvel attempted to force their will onto a small time author. Graham Jules, author of “Business Zero to Superhero”, was taken to court for using the trade marked word “Superhero” in his book’s title, only for the famed comic publishers to back out subsequently for “commercial reasons”. This here, covers the legal battle apart from providing a nice little overview of superhero literature through the 1900s. I will not be directly discussing the above

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An unclear precedent : Accept the offer to surrender or revoke the patent? (IPAB order 29 of 2016)

/ By / Patent

Sribindu Chivukula recently wrote a post for us on the IPAB order relating to revocation proceedings where an offer to surrender the patent was also previously made. Sribindu concluded that “While the Act does not categorically state/forbid patentee from surrendering a patent through opposition/revocation proceedings, the IPAB’s ruling in the present case clearly established that a surrender is possible only when there are no proceedings pending with respect to the patent. If, however, any such proceedings are pending at the

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