2021

Picture of Seretide Accuhaler (circular, in a pink and purple colour combination), next to its box

The Monopoly Purple – Colours, Shapes and Sizes in the Pharmaceutical World

/ By / Drug Regulation, Trademark

(This post was co-authored with Murali Neelakantan. Murali is currently Principal lawyer at Amicus. He is a dual qualified lawyer (India and UK) and among other positions, he was formerly a partner at an international law firm in London, Cipla’s first global general counsel, and Executive Director and Global General Counsel of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Murali has also been a long time friend of the blog.)  While the role of patents in extending monopolies over pharmaceutical products is now widely debated, […]

The Monopoly Purple – Colours, Shapes and Sizes in the Pharmaceutical World Read More »

Remdesivir Shortage: Can the Drug be Imported under Patents Act?

/ By / COVID-19, Patent

Amid the ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases, many states in the country are reported to be facing shortage of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug patented by Gilead. The drug was approved by India’s drug regulator in June last year for restricted emergency use for treatment of Covid-19 patients and is presently being manufactured and supplied by seven Indian companies under a voluntary license agreement with Gilead. In order to address the shortage, the Government has (among other measures) banned its export

Remdesivir Shortage: Can the Drug be Imported under Patents Act? Read More »

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 5 – 11)

/ By / Copyright, Innovation, Patent, Trademark

Topical Highlights SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace In Part I, Adarsh summarizes the recent SCOTUS ruling on Google’s copying of roughly 11,500 lines of code relating to 37 software packages forming part of Sun Java API, owned by Oracle. The court renders no finding on copyrightability and has restricted itself to the question of fair use by undertaking the four-factor analysis. On ‘Nature of the

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 5 – 11) Read More »

Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion

/ By / Trademark

We’re pleased to bring you a guest post by Dr. Sunanda Bharti, analysing the position of law on registration and infringement of position trademarks. Sunanda is an Associate Professor in Law at Delhi University and has written several guest posts for the blog in the past. Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion Dr. Sunanda Bharti Recently, Tefal was in the news for being denied registration for its famous ‘red dot’ mark in the UK, which was initially claimed to

Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion Read More »

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

/ By / Copyright, Privacy, Trademark

It is a common practice for political parties to utilise songs, either original or non-original, as part of their election campaigns. Like most other things in life though, politicians have frequently thought themselves above the law when it comes to asking for permissions for using copyrighted songs! It has led to protests in countries such as the United States by artists against political usage of their music. A prominent controversy involving Rihanna’s objection to Donald Trump using her songs at

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP Read More »

The Compilation of the Decade of SpicyIP Posts on IPAB

/ By / Copyright, Geographical Indication, Patent, Plant Variety Protection, Trademark

[Co-authored/compiled with Praharsh Gour]  Earlier this week, Praharsh blogged about the IPAB finally being scrapped through an ordinance, with its powers / duties transferred to High Courts and Commercial courts (for copyright matters). Long time readers may recall that Prof Shamnad Basheer, after pointing out various issues with it, had first started asking for the IPAB to be shut down 11 years ago, in this post titled “Pondering the legal competence of the IPAB”. Note the following lines – more

The Compilation of the Decade of SpicyIP Posts on IPAB Read More »

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part II)

/ By / Copyright

In Part I of this two-part post, I introduced the SCOTUS’ judgment, the concept of API and summarised the majority’s finding. In this Part II, I summarise the minority opinion and share my critique of the judgment. The minority’s opinion The minority agrees with the majority insofar as “fair use” being a mixed question of fact and law. The minority disagrees with everything else. The minority criticises the Courts approach of determining the application of an exception/defence without issuing a

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part II) Read More »

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part I)

/ By / Copyright

On 5th April, the Supreme Court of the United States allowed Google’s appeal and held that Google’s copying of roughly 11,500 lines of code relating to 37 software packages forming part of Sun Java Application Programming Interface (API), owned by Oracle, was protected by ‘fair use’. The majority opinion was delivered by Justice Breyer (joined by 5 other judges), and a dissenting opinion was filed by Justice Thomas (joined by one other judge). One judge (Justice Barrett took no part

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part I) Read More »

Madras High Court Grants Interim Injunction to Kibow Biotech, Making Problematic Observations on Patentability of Subject Matter

/ By / Patent

Recently Madras High Court added another tale in the litigation scrimmage between US corporate Kibow Biotech and Indian entities La Renon Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and Stanford Labs Pvt. Ltd. (not to be confused with the American university) by “making absolute” a previously granted interim injunction against the Indian entities, via its order dated 01/04/2021 (pdf).  Back in 2013 we had reported about a rare occurrence in Indian IP litigation where the IPAB’s order against the revocation of a patent was

Madras High Court Grants Interim Injunction to Kibow Biotech, Making Problematic Observations on Patentability of Subject Matter Read More »

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021

/ By / Copyright, Design, Geographical Indication, Patent, Plant Variety Protection, Trademark, Uncategorized

IPAB has been in the eye of the storm since its inception. While there are ardent believers of the institution (See here and here), there are equally strong arguments by the ones against it (few of them advanced by the former Chairperson of the institution itself!) (See here here and here). A few months ago, the Executive seemingly laid the debate to rest by introducing the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Bill 2021, proposing to scrap IPAB. However,

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021 Read More »

Scroll to Top