In one of the first works of its kind, a recent publication edited by the wonderful Dr Pratyush Nath Upreti (Queens University, Belfast), brought together a number of IP scholars to examine the IP developments and debates that have taken place in South Asia. As Prof Gangjee notes in the forward, “a central aim of this book is to document current initiatives and imagine future possibilities for creating more equitable and inclusive intellectual property regimes across the regime”. He emphasises the necessity of this reimagination in context of the historical legacies of colonial rule and external forces that shaped IP systems in South Asia. This echoes a sentiment that has long since been highlighted on this blog, notably by Prof Basheer even in the early days, that local policies that shape knowledge production and governance should be rooted in local realities! With chapters bringing in views from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the book does a remarkable and much needed job of weaving together histories, comparatives and realities together from this region of the world that contains 1/4th of the world’s population.
In a lovely gesture, the book was also dedicated towards Prof Shamnad Basheer, aptly recognizing the strong influence and inspiration he provided and continues to provide in bringing visibility of IP thought from this region, to the global stage. Given the substance and form of this edited collection are both ones that resonate so deeply with us, we are thrilled to be having an online symposium, discussing the book. In line with how the book is divided, we will also have one speaker for each Part of the book and these include:
– Shama Mahajan for Part I: “IP History and Development”. Shama is an LLM candidate at NUS Singapore;
– Akshat Agrawal for Part II “Developments in South Asia”. Akshat is Founder and Counsel at AASA Chambers; and
– Prof Ishupal Singh Kang for Part III “Institutions, Courts and Practice”. Ishupal is an Associate Professor at Jindal Global Law School.
(Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for providing e-copies of this book to the three panellists).
It’s a discussion I greatly look forward to listening in to and also hope to have you all there with us! It is scheduled for 17th January, 2:00pm to 4:00pm, and will be online and viewable on Zoom (details here) as well as livestreamed from our youtube channel [SpicyIP TV].
On a personal note, it also gave me an amazing yet strikingly difficult opportunity to try encapsulating Prof Basheer’s contributions within [just] one chapter. As anyone who is aware of the depth and breadth of his work (see for eg here) knows, this is an impossible task. So instead, I attempted to weave together a narrative from my own (and thus subjective) viewpoint of how, in retrospect, I connected some of the dots of his journey. In particular, I try to envision this journey through values that he eponymously acronymed as “CHAMPS” in IDIA law (more details on this in the chapter). I reproduce the abstract as below:
Intellectual Property and Social Justice: Remembering the Contributions of Prof Shamnad Basheer:
Abstract: Professor (Dr) Shamnad Basheer (1976-2019) was a force of nature in the Indian intellectual property landscape, with few others from the developing world having as large of an impact on international IP as he did. While it would be accurate to describe him as a towering intellect with a razor-sharp grasp of IP laws, policies, norms and implications, that would not do him justice. This is because it was his ability to contextualise these intellectual outpourings on both, the purpose of intellectual property norms in law, as well as the implications of these norms and laws in society, that perhaps truly defined his contributions. Indeed, as a practicing lawyer-turned scholar who viewed nuanced issues within their specific contexts rather than in a black or white narratives often pre-framed by a western lens, Prof Basheer was perhaps one of the few voices that had detractors as well as supporters on both sides of the binaries created in the deeply polarized post-TRIPS ‘with-us-or-against-us’ world. Much like his views, it was also difficult to place him neatly within any bucket, as he wore the hats of an academic, legal strategist, public intellectual, social justice warrior, and more. His contributions in the landmark Novartis case (interpreting Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act), as well as his contributions in the landmark DU Photocopy case (regarding students’ access to educational material) are perhaps the most welldocumented. However, some of his other contributions also included petitioning for increased transparency and accountability in the Indian Patent Landscape, having his publications cited in multiple landmark patent and copyright orders, and creating a unique online platform (SpicyIP) to make IP concepts and issues more accessible to all who are affected by it and who can contribute to it, beyond the traditional ‘ivory towers.’ This chapter aims to trace these as well as more of Prof Basheer’s contributions, as their echoes continue to influence and provide inspiration for more IP thought focused on local realities.
The full version of the chapter will be available online in a few months and in the meantime, the pre-print is available here.
Poster details of the Book Symposium are as below.
