2021

National Biodiversity Authority Imposing Upfront Monetary Payment as Benefit Sharing for Research

/ By / Biological Diversity

There has been a recent development in the context of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (‘BDA’), which I thought was interesting to share and discuss on the blog. Back in 2018, the Central Government issued the direction to the National Biodiversity Authority (‘NBA’) purportedly under Section 48 of the BDA. According to this office memorandum (followed by another) a kind of immunity deal was provided for persons who had committed any acts without the required approval from the authorities under […]

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Draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Proposes Major Changes to India’s Open Access Culture

/ By / Copyright, Innovation, Others

[This post has been co-authored with Praharsh Gour] On 2/01/2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology rolled out the draft version of the proposed Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. The process to have a new policy, subsequent to the 2013 one, was in the works since May 2020 (see here for our coverage of the same). And after a claimed 4 track process of consultations and “nearly 300 rounds of consultations with more than 40,000 stakeholders well distributed in terms

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The Sci-Hub Case: Why It is Time to Stop Favouring the Doctrinal Approach to Law over an Empirical One

/ By / Copyright

The Sci-Hub/Libgen case continues to generate interest from researchers across the country. We’re pleased to bring you another guest post on this issue, this time one that showcases the results of a ‘mini survey’ on users of Sci-Hub, as well as highlights the lack of empirical evidence in these debates. This post is co-authored by Anshuman Sahoo and Aditi Shirpurkar. Anshuman is a 2nd year LL.M. student at Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur. He regularly writes

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Interdigital v. Xiaomi: Confidential Information and Open Courts

/ By / Others, Patent, Trade Secret

In this post on the recent Delhi High Court order in Interdigital v. Xiaomi, I highlight how the common practice of courts granting confidentiality in commercial litigation without much reasoning does not augur well for transparency, judicial accountability and the citizens’ right to be informed of Court processes and reasoning as part of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. The Public’s Right to Know The Delhi High Court’s order

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Interdigital v. Xiaomi: Relevance for Defendant’s Rights beyond SEP Litigation

/ By / Patent, Trade Secret

Recently, Nikhil covered InterDigital’s ongoing SEP (Standard Essential Patents) infringement dispute with Xiaomi, wherein a Confidentiality Club was proposed for sharing confidential documents to assess whether the licensing terms being offered by InterDigital were on FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) basis. The Delhi High Court in its recent order in the case rejected the plaintiff’s proposal to restrict access to certain confidential information from the defendant’s representatives, and to make it subject only to external eyes. In this post, I discuss the relevance

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (December 28 – January 3)

/ By / Copyright, Drug Regulation, Others, Patent, Trademark

Topical Highlight Sci-Hub and Libgen Up against Academic Publishers: A Death Knell for Access to Research? – Part I In this three-part post, Nikhil dissects the ongoing copyright litigation in the Delhi High Court by three big publishing houses, namely Elsevier, Wiley and ACM against the shadow libraries Libgen and Sci-Hub, alongwith the interpretive issues before the court. In Part I, he explains the background of the dispute and analyses the dynamic injunction plea sought by the plaintiffs. He argues that a thorough

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Tenability of Passing Off Action against ‘Covishield’ Vaccine of Serum Institute of India

/ By / COVID-19, Trademark

As you are aware of, Covishield, the vaccine candidate of Serum Institute of India was approved by Drug Controller General of India for restricted emergency use today. Pertinently, a passing off suit was filed against Serum Institute of India by a Nanded-based pharmaceutical company Cutis Biotech last month, which claimed to be the lawful and the prior user of the trade name ‘Covishield’. The trademark applications, which were filed by the Cutis Biotech and the Serum Institute of India, are

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A Look Back at India’s Top IP Developments of 2020

/ By / Copyright, Geographical Indication, Patent, Trade Secret, Trademark

(This post has been co-authored with SpicyIP Fellows Adyasha Samal, Anupriya Dhonchak and Nikhil Purohit.) Here’s wishing all our readers a very happy, safe and healthy new year! Unfortunately, many traditions worldwide had to be broken the past year, but here at SpicyIP we’re glad to continue our annual tradition of recounting all the significant developments that impacted the Indian IP landscape in 2020. This year, we have divided these developments into four categories: a) Top 10 IP Judgments/Orders (Topicality/Impact) b) Top

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