Balaji Subramanian

Balaji is a third year student at NALSAR, Hyderabad. He is currently an editor of the Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law. He is fascinated by technology law and IP law, and is an active member of NALSAR's Technology Law Forum. When he isn't doing law school things, he wanders the country looking for quizzes to participate in. He can be emailed at [email protected]

Patent

Saxagliptin CL Round 1: Controller shoots down Lee Pharma

by Balaji Subramanian August 21, 2015

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As we’d reported a couple of days ago, the Controller of Patents has issued a prima facie finding on Lee Pharma’s Compulsory License application to manufacture saxagliptin, AstraZeneca’s patented anti-diabetic drug. The order [PDF], dated 12 August 2015, has just been uploaded to the IPO website. The Controller’s prima facie findings seem to be almost perfectly aligned with our assessment of Lee Pharma’s application. While he agrees that Lee is an interested party and has made bona fide attempts to negotiate a voluntary license, he finds that Lee…

Patent

SpicyIP Tidbit: Latest developments in Lee Pharma’s Saxagliptin CL application

by Balaji Subramanian August 18, 2015

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The Economic Times reports that the Controller of Patents has rejected Lee Pharma’s application for a Compulsory License to manufacture AstraZeneca’s patented anti-diabetic drug saxagliptin. We covered the application extensively on the blog, and this represents a substantial development in the case. However, the ET article appears to be slightly misleading when it implies that this decision is final and resolves the matter. That’s not the case – we’ve learned that this is merely a notification under Rule 97(1) of…

Event

IPScholars Asia 2016

by Balaji Subramanian August 18, 2015

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Patent

Old wine and a new bottle: India at SCP/22

by Balaji Subramanian August 1, 2015

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The last week witnessed the Twenty Second Session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP/22) convening in Geneva. Over the course of the session, India made a couple of noteworthy statements. While it may seem that the delegation was merely reiterating India’s general outlook on IP policy, it’s crucial to note that such re-affirmations are of vital importance in fora such as the WIPO SCP. First, on the 27th of July, Permanent Representative to the UN Ajit…

Kerala Police arrests teenagers for movie piracy following industry uproar

by Balaji Subramanian July 13, 2015

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Last week, the Kerala Police arrested three students (two of them under the age of 18) in connection with the investigation into the large-scale piracy of the recently released blockbuster Premam. The police reaction in this case is symptomatic of the problems that an IP criminalisation approach brings – since police action can be most easily brought against the weakest link in the piracy chain, it’s most likely going to be nothing more than a newsworthy scapegoating exercise. In the…

Patent

IPAB allows CSIR’s appeal over grant of patent on iodising agent

by Balaji Subramanian July 12, 2015

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In an order dated July 3, Justice KN Basha and Technical Member DPS Parmar allowed an appeal by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) against Hindustan Unilever Ltd. regarding the former’s application for a patent on a novel iodising agent for table salt. CSIR’s application, filed in 2004, covers both the iodising agent and the process for its preparation. HUL’s pre-grant opposition, filed in 2006, was met with a reply in 2010. In 2012, CSIR amended its application…

Others

SpicyIP Weekly Review (5-11 July 2015)

by Balaji Subramanian July 12, 2015

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Highlight of the Week Over the last week, the post Swaraj and I did on Lee Pharma’s compulsory licence application for AstraZeneca’s anti-diabetic Saxagliptin has been generating a lot of buzz. We broke the story first following an anonymous tip-off on the blog, and questioned the application’s merits on the ground that Saxagliptin was just one of four DPP-4 inhibitor drugs used for Type II Diabetes Mellitus management, and seemed to be substitutable for the other three. This significantly lowers…

Patent

Compulsory Licence Application filed over AstraZeneca’s Saxagliptin

by Balaji Subramanian July 5, 2015

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Earlier today, we received an anonymous tip-off that an application for a Compulsory License had been filed last week for the patent covering Saxagliptin. On checking, we found that it was true – a Compulsory Licence application has been filed over AstraZeneca’s diabetes management drug Saxagliptin. This marks the third Compulsory Licence application that has been filed thus far. The first one (Natco’s application for Bayer’s Nexavar) was successful, and the second (BDR’s application for BMS’s Dasatinib) was rejected. You can find…

Patent

Interrogating Interim Injunctions: Ramkumar’s dual-SIM patent

by Balaji Subramanian June 23, 2015

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Here’s the third of Saahil Dama’s guest posts on interim injunctions in patent cases. Here, he examines the most notorious example of “injunction holdup” – the Ramkumar case. [Disclaimer: This is a fairly long post.] Saahil is a student at National Law University, Jodhpur. He is currently in the fourth year and is pursuing Intellectual Property Law Honours at the University. You can find his previous posts here and here. Interrogating Interim Injunctions: Ramkumar’s dual-SIM patent By Saahil Dama Some readers may remember the…

Others

SpicyIP Weekly Review (1 June – 14 June 2015)

by Balaji Subramanian June 14, 2015

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Highlight of the Fortnight We’ve had some interesting posts over the last couple of weeks, but none of them were met with the response that greeted Spadika’s piece breaking down the debacle that was this year’s CLAT. She starts off by summarising the allegations – that a large bunch of questions were lifted from sources such as GKToday and the CAT. Then, she attacks the impressive array of issues thrown up if these allegations were to be true. She ponders…

{ Research is defined within the copyright act itself- please carefully peruse it. Section 32. Also the Blackwood judgment (although in ignorance of section 32) has also derived external... }
Pro Patent { I have seen many cases where examiners raises mechanical objections when it comes to asking applicant to mention source and origin of biological resource & asking NBA permission... }
Murti Poolla { 1. I would pray where is the word “Research” defined in any of our Indian Acts. Also, in any Acts of Foreign Countries like US, UK and EU... }
Samrat { Well-noted. Instead of the moralistic position taken by the patent office, the more appropriate approach would be to ascertain whether the innovation is less harmful than the tobacco... }
Dr Kadam Avinash { Hi Kapilji! Can a licensee files for trade mark in the same on its own ? There is a Technology and IP lies with the institutions. There are... }