Author name: Aparajita Lath

Aparajita graduated from the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata where she was on the Board of Editors of the NUJS Law Review. She has worked at AZB & Partners and Trilegal. She is currently pursuing her LL.M at Harvard Law School and is a Student Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Centre.

Overview of the S. 3 landscape on patenting biotechnology inventions in India

/ By / Others

[This post has been co-authored with Rahul Bajaj. All views expressed are personal]. Market dynamics in the health and innovation space are making the biotech and life sciences sector an industry to watch out for. Trends such as the association of AI with life sciences, the growth of start-ups / non-traditional companies investing in life sciences, reduced spending on small molecule-drugs and promising new biotech treatments, indicate that windows of opportunity for investment in this sector are opening up. Unlike …

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AI and copyright: More developments – human prompts are not ‘direct instructions’

/ By / Others

Image from here. Théâtre D’opéra Spatial. On September 5, 2023, as explained here, the US Copyright Office (USCO) issued an interesting decision in a copyright registration matter that involved AI-generated work. Previously, in the Thaler case, the US Copyright Office had refused to register an AI-generated work since the application named the AI-system as the author. This case revolved around the question of whether or not an AI system can be an author. The USCO ruled that it cannot since …

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Have a break, have a KitKat: The chocolate or chanachur?

/ By / Others

Last month, the Calcutta High Court decided a trademark dispute between KitKat (chocolate coated wafers) and KitKat (chanachur – a savoury chickpea snack) after 23 years. For those who may not know, chanachur is a very popular street food/snack which Calcutta is famous for. Street vendors across the city make their own versions of chanachur mixed with fresh onions and spices. While chanachur can be bought from street vendors, it is also sold in packets in retail stores. In 2000, …

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Jan Vishwas Bill 2023: Small businesses, competition and public health set up to lose?

/ By / Others

As reported, both Houses of Parliament recently passed the Jan Vishwas Bill, 2023 (JV Bill). This bill seeks to promote business by reducing penalties and decriminalising offences across 42 legislations. Major intellectual property rights laws – the Copyright Act, 1957, the Patents Act, 1970, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Geographical Indications Act, 1999, have also been amended. We had discussed salient features of the JV Bill, 2022 along with its limitations in a post here. The major amendments …

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Is Messenger RNA Patent-Eligible?

/ By / Others

While several intellectual property rights battles are being fought over the mRNA platform, a key question that remains unaddressed is whether and to what extent mRNA is patent eligible. Patent eligible subject matter refers to subject matter that is inherently suited for patent protection. Section 3 of the Patents Act, 1970 is the key section on “patent eligibility” and lists out what are not “inventions”. For mRNA, sections 3(c), 3(d), 3(i) and 3(j) are of relevance. Section 3(i) broadly excludes …

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Vistara: The Limitless Possibilities of (Trademark) Expansion

/ By / Trademark

Vistara airlines recently sued Vistara Home Appliances (defendant/respondent) for trademark infringement and passing off before the Delhi High Court. A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court passed an order which will adversely impact businesses (especially small ones) going forward. Background Vistara is a Sanskrit word which means ‘limitless possibilities’ and is also the name of a now well-known airline service in India. Vistara airlines is a joint venture between TATA Sons Private Limited and Singapore Airlines Limited and operates …

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Informal innovation: The re-emergence of ‘informal’ washing machines

/ By / Innovation

A topic close to this blog’s heart – informal innovation, recently made headlines. The Prime Minister of the UK awarded Navjot Sawhney with the Points of Light Award for his hand-cranked washing machines. This award recognises volunteers, charity leaders and community champions. Navjot Sawhney designed washing machines that are cranked by hand and do not use any electricity. Just like hand-churned  ice-creams, clothes are hand-churned in a tub, and come out clean. As per interviews given by Sawhney, the driving …

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Future of mRNA and win-win for all: Why we need the government to disclose its collaboration agreement

/ By / Others, Patent

It is critical for the government to be forward-thinking. The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, a government department,  is reported to have provided INR 70 to 100 crores to Gennova Pharmaceuticals for its development of an mRNA vaccine for Covid. The mRNA technology is a versatile platform technology that has been heralded as a new era in vaccines. The platform used by Gennova (saRNA – self-amplifying RNA) overcomes storage / temperature issues that affected previous versions of mRNA vaccines. Unlike …

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COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Infringement? The Battle Between Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Continues

/ By / Patent

The mRNA vaccine platform is a versatile vaccine technology that has the potential to treat several diseases. It has been heralded as a new age in medicine and several countries and companies all over the world are interested in it. However, there is uncertainty over who owns its main components  i.e. the mRNA and the lipids that coat the mRNA to enable delivery. Several intellectual property rights battles are being fought over this new technology. One of the main battles involves …

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Bill to decriminalise IP offences misses the mark and dilutes significant provisions

/ By / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

The Parliament is considering a bill that decriminalises offences across 42 statutes. Intellectual property rights statutes i.e. the Copyright Act, 1957, the Patents Act, 1970, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Geographical Indications Act, 1999 are among the laws that are proposed to be amended. The objective of this bill is to increase the ‘Ease of Living and Doing Business in India’. The Statement of Objects and Reasons provide several general reasons for the bill including making India a …

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