SpicyIP Weekly Review (May 24 – 30)

NUALS’ 7th CIPR National Essay Writing Competition [Submit by July 4]

We informed the readers about an essay competition being organized by the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi for law students on the theme ‘IP & SMEs: Taking Ideas to Market’. The submission deadline for the competition is July 4, 2021. For further details including submission guidelines and eligibility, please refer to the post.

Book Launch Webinar: ‘The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights under International Investment Law’ [May 27]

We further informed our readers about a webinar on the launch of the book ‘The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights under International Investment Law’ authored by Dr. Simon Klopschinski (rospatt osten pross), Dr. Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan (University of Cambridge, King’s College) and Prof. Christopher Gibson (Suffolk University Law School) held on May 27. Further details about the event are available in the post.

Decisions from Indian Courts

• The Delhi High Court in Reddys Laboratories Limited v. West-Coast Pharmaceutical Works Ltd., denied an ex parte ad interim injunction sought by the plaintiffs to restrain the defendant’s use of the ‘OMES’ mark in light of the plaintiff’s ‘OMEZ’ mark. The court held that the balance of convenience, irreparable loss, and public interest did not weigh in the plaintiff’s favour at this stage and the defendant must be allowed to file a response. [May 28, 2021]
• The Delhi High Court in Khadi & Village Industries Commission v. Khadi Design Council of India, granted an ex parte interim injunction restraining the defendant from using any mark similar to the plaintiff’s registered ‘KHADI’ marks and Charkha logos. [May 28, 2021]
• The Delhi High court in Natco Pharma Limited v. Union of India, disposed of a writ petition seeking directions to the Controller to first consider the application filed by Natco to cross-examine the expert witnesses cited by Novartis expeditiously in accordance with the mutual agreement of the parties on the same. [May 27, 2021]
• The Karnataka High Court in C Krishniah Chetty and Sons Private Limited v. Deepali Company Private Limited, dismissed a Commercial Appeal against an order of the Bangalore Commercial Court which had dismissed interim applications seeking injunction against the Respondent from using the marks “C.Krishniah Chetty Corp., C.Krishniah Chetty & Co., Chetty & Co. Chetty, C.Krishniah Chetty & Co.1869, Chetty & Co. 1869, Chetty 1869.” [May 27, 2021]
• The Delhi High Court in Western Digital Technologies v. Sumit Pandey, granted an ex parte ad interim injunction restraining the defendant from using any marks deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s registered Western Digital marks and to suspend the infringing domains. [May 27, 2021]

  

• The Delhi High Court in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. v. Wings Biotech, granted an ex parte interim injunction restraining the defendant from using the mark ‘ONEVITAL’ or any other marks deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s registered ‘REVITAL’ mark. [May 24, 2021]
• The Bangalore District Court in Phenomenon Agents Limited v. Ganga Devi, granted a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from using the marks ‘SMART AKAI’ and ‘GOLDEN AKAI’ in light of the plaintiff’s registered ‘AKAI’ mark. [May 24, 2021]
• The Delhi High Court in Verizon Trademark Services LLC v. Innovation Meditech Private Limited, granted an ad interim injunction restraining the defendants from using any mark similar to the plaintiff’s registered ‘VERIZON’ mark. [May 24, 2021]
• The Gujarat High Court in Mohalla Tech Private Limited v. Lagdhir Jugaldip Bharatkumar, dismissed an appeal against an order by the City Civil Court, Ahmedabad, granting ex parte ad interim injunction in a trademark suit. [May 24, 2021]
• The Delhi High Court in Bennett Coleman v. WhatsappInc, granted an ex parte interim injunction against the unauthorized transmission and dissemination of the plaintiff’s Times of India e-newspapers by the defendant on platforms such as Whatsapp and Telegram. [May 21, 2021]
• The Delhi High Court in Premier Nutritions Private Limited v. Amit Product, upon coming to know that the plaintiff had suppressed a material fact of a similar trademark suit filed in a different court, modified its interim order through which an interim injunction was granted restraining the defendants from using the mark “DOODH MANTHAN” or any other mark deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s “MANTHAN/PREMIER MANTHAN”, and a local commissioner was appointed. The modified order permitted the defendants to sell the goods seized by the local commissioner. [May 20, 2021]

Other News

• Bharat Biotech has released a statement claiming that there has been no technology transfer with ICMR or National Institute of Virology for their Covaxin vaccine and that their collaboration was limited to procurement of the SARSCoV-2 strain and studies on large animals.
• Russia’s Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit filed by Gilead challenging the Russian Government’s decision to issue a compulsory license for the drug Remdesivir without Gilead’s consent.

  

• NITI Aayog Member V K Paul has stated that compulsory licensing is not a viable option for Covid-19 vaccines since the know-how remains with the manufacturers, and instead active partnership with the manufacturers is important. This has been critiqued by Prof. Scaria here.
• Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD), India’s largest syringe maker has written to the DRDO chairman to discontinue the use of the ‘Dipcovan’ mark for its Covid-19 antibody detection kit as it is deceptively similar to their mark ‘Dispovan’.
• A piece in The Wire examines the relationship of the TRIPS waiver with bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters in free trade agreements (FTAs).
• Sun Pharma has received rights to trademarks of diabetes drug Dapagliflozin under brands Oxra, Oxramet and Oxraduo in India from AstraZeneca and also obtained patent license to manufacture and commercialise Dapagliflozin and Dapagliflozin with Metformin combination in India.