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].

Proportion of Women Inventors on the Rise, Say Two New Studies

/ By / Patent

A brief while ago, I had published a piece on the interface between gender and IP. One of the key take- aways from the post was that the number of women patentees worldwide is extremely low as compared to men. Two recently published studies- one by the UK Intellectual Property Office (“Study 1”) and another, a working paper of WIPO (“Study 2”) – point out that the gender gap among inventors is slowly but surely being bridged across the world. […]

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Latest ‘Access to Medicine Index’ Released

/ By / Others

The latest ‘Access to Medicine Index’, a biennial study that ranks the top 20 innovator companies on 7 parameters related to access, has been released for 2016 (for our coverage of the 2008 and 2014 Indices, see here and here). The Index assesses how effectively the top 20 research-based pharmaceutical companies make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics more accessible in the middle and low income countries. It is brought out by ‘The Access to Medicine Foundation’ funded by the UK Department

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (November 6-12)

/ By / Others

The topical highlight of the week was Prashant’s piece on the impact of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to power, on Indian IP law and policy. Prashant starts off by pointing out the grand declarations made by the President elect who in his manifesto has declared that he will make use of every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes if China does not stop its plethora of illegal activities. Prashant traces the brief history of America’s policies starting from the Regan

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Major Changes on the Cards for Drug Pricing Policy?

/ By / Drug Regulation

In a week when the cash in your hand was turned to pulp and the possibility of the planet itself being turned into pulp in the next four years became alive, it is hard to see any other news grabbing the headlines. Nevertheless, we have news which could potentially capture reader attention once the dust settles on the current events and life (hopefully) goes back to normal. As per reports (see, here and here) an “overhaul of drug policy” is

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Dozing DoP Wakes Up: Consults Ministries on Price Regulation of Patented Drugs

/ By / Drug Regulation, Patent

Vasundhara had recently alerted us about the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances pulling up the Department of Pharmaceuticals (‘DoP’) for their inaction on the control of patented drug prices. As reported by Live Mint, the chastising seems to have worked for the time being as DoP has now sought the views of different ministries on price regulation of patented drugs. Apparently, the Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (‘DIPP’) is simultaneously examining if there needs to be a change in

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (October 16-22)

/ By / Others

The topical highlight for this week is Rahul’s coverage of CSIR Director’s call to its affiliated laboratories to refrain from ad-hoc and unprincipled patenting of their inventions without undertaking a techno-commercial and legal evaluation. The Director admonishes both the reluctance of labs to find suitable licensees as well as their neglect in renewing the patents once the concerned scientist retires. He also points out that, given the high filing costs incurred by CSIR, approximately to the tune of 56 crores,

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ISRA Marks Another Victory at the Delhi High Court

/ By / Copyright

In a strikingly similar decision to the one reported by Prashant two months ago (Indian Singers’ Rights Association v. Chapter 25 Bar and Restaurant, “ISRA-1”), the Indian Singers’ Rights Association (ISRA) has succeeded in another law suit brought about to enforce performers’ rights. The similarities are not just confined to the kind of reliefs prayed for or the grounds relied on; they even extend to the fact that this suit too was decreed ex-parte. As opposed to ISRA-1, “Dasti service” (service

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UN High Level Panel Releases a Hard Hitting Report on Access to Medicines and Health Technologies

/ By / Drug Regulation, Patent

The UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (“Panel”) released its final report (“Report”) last month on the issue of promoting innovation and access to health technologies. It comes close on the heels of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Access to Medicines (see our post on it here) and echoes most of the sentiments expressed in the Resolution. The Report itself states that it builds on the “previous and existing work in the field of health technology

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Puzzling Patents Galore!

/ By / Patent

When Prof. Basheer kick-started the series on absurd patents, readers would have been curious to know how absurd can absurd get. The guest post by Jasneet Kaur proved that human imagination for the bizarre and whacky knows no bounds. Continuing on from the previous post, I bring to you two more patents in our series of puzzling patents. Hamdog for the confused                 Have you ever been reminded of something equally tasty when

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Bollywood Now Frets over Intrusive Copyright Lawsuits- Calls for Stricter Scrutiny

/ By / Copyright

The who’s who of Bollywood have been constantly demanding stricter laws and heavier punishments for copyright infringement. Some have even gone to the extent of saying that supporting piracy is akin to supporting terrorism. The Bhai of Bollywood, Salman Khan, himself no stranger to criminal justice system, suggested imposition of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, against those who indulged in piracy (with TADA no longer in force, I am not sure what he meant)! Now in a bit of

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