Aparajita Lath

Aparajita graduated from the WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. She was formerly an editor of the NUJS Law Review. She is a lawyer based in Bangalore. All views expressed by her on the blog are her personal views.

Trademark

Guest Post: Delhi HC: Officer’s Special and Collector’s Choice Deceptively Similar to Officer’s Choice

by Aparajita Lath August 10, 2015

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We have for our readers a guest post by Ritvik Kulkarni. Ritvik is a third year law student, studying at ILS, Pune. He has written for us previously here. Delhi HC: Officer’s Special and Collector’s Choice Deceptively Similar to Officer’s Choice By Ritvik Kulkarni In the battle brewing between whiskey manufactures, the proprietor of the mark “Officer’s Choice” has emerged a victorious. The Delhi High Court has vide its order dated 6th July 2015 dismissed the appeals of the proprietors…

Patent

Guest Post: The Delhi High Court has its Hands Tied: Writ Concerning Divisional Patent Applications

by Aparajita Lath July 5, 2015

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We have for our readers a guest post by Ritvik Kulkarni. Ritvik is a third year law student, studying at ILS, Pune. In this blog post he examines a recent writ petition filed by the Delhi Network of Positive People (DNPP) in relation to the abusive practice of filing divisional patent applications and their impact on access to medicine. The Delhi High Court has its Hands Tied: Writ Concerning Divisional Patent Applications By Ritvik Kulkarni Recently, through a writ petition before the Delhi…

Trademark

VIT University Trademark Dispute: A rose is a rose?

by Aparajita Lath June 30, 2015

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Recently, the Madras High Court granted an interim injunction restraining Vivekananda Institute of Technology from using the acronym ‘VIT’ in relation to its engineering colleges. Since Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, was the prior registered owner of the mark VIT for education, training, sports etc, and the mark was held to be a well known mark, the question the court had to decide was whether the defendant could be allowed to ‘VIT’ for their educational institutions set up in Jaipur….

Patent

Eureka Forbes and Hindustan Unilever: Water purification patent pitter-patter

by Aparajita Lath June 24, 2015

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A few days ago, as reported by the Financial Express, the Chennai patent office rejected a patent application filed by Eureka Forbes for its ‘iron removal water purifier’ after a pre grant opposition filed by Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Hindustan Unilever argued that “the usage of ion exchange resin for the removal of iron as well as its usage in gravity water filters is well known in prior art.” Moreover, as reported, Hindustan Unilever contended that Eureka Forbes had failed to…

Geographical Indication

Who is going to be the G.I. Joe that will save the vanishing Indian GIs?

by Aparajita Lath June 17, 2015

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A few days ago the Hindu published a telling editorial written by Justice Prabha Sridevan, former judge of the Madras High Court and former Chairperson of the IPAB. The lucid editorial highlights the need for India to concentrate not just on patents and other mainstream IP rights but also bring back Geographical Indications (GIs) into the foreground of debate. This is specially true for India, as she rightly remarks “Practically everything that we grow, make or produce is linked to…

Others

SpicyIP Tidbit: Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance launches a new website

by Aparajita Lath June 4, 2015

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The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) that represents researched based national pharmaceutical companies recently launched its website: www.ipa-india.org. As Mr. D G Shah, Secretary General, IPA states “The website provides plenty of information and data on diverse subjects. Be it pricing, patents, drug regulatory regime or role and contribution of the national pharmaceutical industry to the economy. It shares IPA presentations at various fora and position papers on many subjects. Its rich content will help you to source various information related…

Trademark

SpicyIP Tidbit: HUL proposes inclusion of IPR in school syllabus

by Aparajita Lath April 30, 2015

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“I don’t understand maths. But still, I made an effort to wake up at 5.30 a.m. every morning to solve maths problems, but to no use. I feel these problems are not at all relevant and useful”, a high school student in Karnataka frankly admitted this in his SSLC answer sheet, as reported yesterday in the Hindu. Various other answers such as chicken curry recipes, heartfelt appeals for pass marks are also apparently common place in math exams. Though these…

Patent

Teva v. Natco : Copaxone litigation update

by Aparajita Lath April 29, 2015

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In 2007, Teva and others filed CS (OS) No. 1708 of 2007 against Natco before the Delhi High Court seeking a permanent injunction in order to restrain Natco from infringing Teva’s Indian Patent No.190759. The prayer also asked the court for an order to restrain Natco from exporting infringing drugs outside India. The patent is a process patent for producing Glatiramer Acetate (also known as Copolymer 1 or ‘Copaxone’ as marketed by Teva). Copaxone is used for the treatment of…

Patent

Guest Post: A ‘captured’ Commerce Ministry puts profits before the safety of ‘Made in India’ medicines

by Aparajita Lath April 25, 2015

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Prashant Reddy has for our readers a telling post that opens a can of worms as it throws light on the goings-on in the drug regulatory arena in India. Prashant is a lawyer who advises on IP & regulatory issues in the pharmaceutical sector. A ‘captured’ Commerce Ministry puts profits before the safety of ‘Made in India’ medicines Prashant Reddy* In December, 2014 news broke of possible action by European drug regulators against GVK Biosciences over discrepancies in clinical trials that it had…

Others

After 66A, Writ to Decriminalize Defamation before Supreme Court

by Aparajita Lath April 8, 2015

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In what seems like a great month for freedom of speech in India, Subramanian Swamy filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court asking the court to decriminalize defamation in India (here). This news was brought to us by Sai Vinod, a former blogger and an integral part of the SpicyIP team. After the Times Publishing House issued a defamation notice to me, threatening criminal action, I wrote a post on SpicyIP analyzing whether Sections 499/500 of the IPC…