Author name: Balu Nair

Balu completed his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata and LL.M. from Melbourne Law School as an Alex Chernov Scholar. He is currently a Lecturer at Jindal Global Law School and is also Assistant Editor at Indian Law Review. He can be reached at [email protected].

Fun Patent Playing Cards for the Art and Patent Buffs!

/ By / Others, Patent

Trust the patent buffs to explore novelty in places where others are unlikely to see it. One can also count on them to tide over the obvious to put it to use on a wide scale. Kevin Prince, a patent agent and author, has come up with the wonderful idea to have playing cards with patent illustrations in them. As Kevin has noted here, although the patent drawings/illustrations form an integral part of the patent applications, the artists who come …

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Piracy and Terror Financing: Is the Devil Still in the Details?

/ By / Copyright

We have in the past examined whether there exists a nexus between piracy and funding of terrorism and/or organised crimes (see here and here). The pertinent takeaways from our analyses were that most of the studies/reports, which have attempted to establish such a nexus have been inconclusive. As Swaraj had pointed out, there were contradictory statements from even within those who attempted to draw out this link. While this causal link continues to remain inconclusive, Union Home Minister, Mr. Rajnath …

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Delhi HC Imposes Cost on Nitish Kumar for Abuse of Process of Law

/ By / Copyright

While Nitish Kumar has got away with the wiliest of political manoeuvring in the recent past, the Delhi High Court has caught him off-guard with a move of its own. In its order dated August 2, 2017, the Delhi High Court has imposed cost of Rs.20,000 on  the Bihar Chief Minister for filing a frivolous application in a copyright infringement suit. The interlocutory application by Nitish Kumar under Order I Rule 10(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, seeking …

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When Journalists Lose their Mojo: Barkha Dutt and NDTV Lock Horns Over the Use of ‘MoJo’

/ By / Trademark

In what can only be described as ‘much ado about nothing’, a series of tweets were exchanged between Barkha Dutt and Nidhi Razdan over NDTV’s purported move towards mobile journalism and the use of the word ‘MoJo’ (abbreviation for ‘Mobile Journalism’) to refer to their ‘new’ form of journalism, which is similar to Barkha Dutt’s online platform ‘TheMojo’. Barkha Dutt’s tweets were triggered by a news report, which talked about the downsizing of staff within NDTV due to financial constraints …

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Government Forms Inter-Ministerial Group to Review Royalty Payment Outflows

/ By / Others

We have in the past covered government’s removal of restrictions on royalty payments by Indian companies to foreign collaborators in cases of technology transfers, usage of trademarks, brand names etc. and how this decision came to be misused by the foreign parent companies. As a first step towards undoing the abuse of this policy, an inter-ministerial group to examine the issue has been formed.  It is also rumoured that this move may be part of the proposed retaliatory measures against …

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Territorial Jurisdiction in Infringement Suits: Delhi HC Returns Plaint for Want of Cause of Action

/ By / Trademark

Readers of SpicyIP will know that the issue of territorial jurisdiction in copyright and trademark suits has been a constant point of discussion on this blog (see here for all posts on jurisdiction). We bring to you yet another decision of the Delhi High Court, which furthers this discussion and asserts that a strong causal link needs to be established for invoking the territorial jurisdiction of a court. This order reinforces the shift in jurisdictional jurisprudence wherein the plaintiffs are …

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Finance Bill, 2017: Turning the Constitution on its Head

/ By / Copyright, Others

Last month, Pankhuri had reported on how the Copyright Board is set to be merged with IPAB through an amendment to the Copyright Act through the Finance Bill, 2017 (“Bill”) and raised the question as to how such a non-taxation proposal could have been brought through the Bill. In what should essentially have been legislated through an ordinary bill, with the assent of Rajya Sabha, the government decided to slip-in the amendments relating to a number of non-fiscal legislations into …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 09-15)

/ By / Others

The topical highlight for the week was Pankhuri’s post alerting the readers about the stay granted by the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court on the earlier order passed by the Single Judge restoring the license contracts between Monsanto and the seed companies. Although the order does not decide on issues such as the validity of the termination of the contracts, it brings the parties back to status quo vis a vis the contracts and renders them inoperable. The …

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Authors’ Alliance Files Brief in Favour of Access to Course Packs

/ By / Copyright

Authors’ Alliance (“Alliance”), a non-profit coalition that supports “authors who write to be read”, has filed an amicus curiae brief in Cambridge University Press et al v. JL Albert et al, supporting the non-profit use of academic works as part of course packs  The brief was submitted by the Alliance in an appeal filed by Cambridge University Press (CUP) against the decision of the district court for the Northern District of Georgia (“District Court”), which ruled in favour of the …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 12-18)

/ By / Others

Last week saw the blog carrying a number of important developments from the Indian IP landscape. Although each story vied strongly to be the weekly highlight, the topical highlight of the week has to be the fellowship entry covering Delhi High Court’s order upholding the interim injunction granted by a single judge against Cipla for manufacturing the drug, ‘Indaflo’, in violation of Novartis’ patent over its drug ‘Indacaterol’.  The order assumes significance as it marks a set back to the …

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