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.

VIT University Trademark Dispute: A rose is a rose?

/ By / Trademark

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. …

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

/ By / Patent

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 …

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

/ By / Geographical Indication

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 …

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance launches a new website

/ By / Others

The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) that represents researched based national pharmaceutical companies recently launched its website: http://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 …

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SpicyIP Tidbit: HUL proposes inclusion of IPR in school syllabus

/ By / Trademark

“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 …

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Teva v. Natco : Copaxone litigation update

/ By / Patent

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 …

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

/ By / Patent

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 …

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After 66A, Writ to Decriminalize Defamation before Supreme Court

/ By / Others

  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 …

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Guest Post: ‘Interim damages’ in FRAND patent litigation: When did that become a thing?

/ By / Patent

Prashant Reddy has for our readers an incisive post on interim damages in FRAND patent litigation. Prashant Reddy was an integral part of SpicyIP for many years and is a prolific writer and a wonderful mentor!  Formerly with Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Prashant is now an independent IP consultant. For our other posts on FRAND litigation see here, here, here ‘Interim damages’ in FRAND patent litigation: When did that become a thing? -Prashant Reddy In the last few years we have seen …

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Media Freedom: Hetero’s response to statements of Director

/ By / Others

The recent controversy surrounding statements made by the Director of Hetero Pharma (Mr. Srinivasa Reddy) in relation to compulsory licensing, which we covered here, and subsequent responses from Hetero, brings out a troubling issue for media freedom. To contextualize, after Mr. Srinivasa made controversial statements regarding Compulsory Licensing, Hetero was quick to distance itself from these comments, calling them ‘personal views’.  However, Hetero also went a step further to state “We are also taking up the matter with the requisite …

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