Hello, readers! The first week of the year has been quite exciting for the blog, with our year-end review of 2017 in Indian IP, Prof. Basheer kicking off SpicyIP’s Interview Series, and Prashant breaking some major developments at the IPAB, along with some other interesting reads and news. Pankhuri curated our Top 10 lists for 2017 as a year in review post. The post highlights crucial developments in four fields – a) Top 10 IP Cases/Judgments (Topicality/Impact) b) Top 10 IP Cases/Judgments…

Merry Christmas to all our readers! We’ve had an exciting week at the blog, with some major developments breaking on the blog: The topical highlight for the week is Prashant’s post on IPRS’s re-registration as a copyright society. This comes in the aftermath of a long and bitter battle for the control over the copyright society and its functioning, polarizing artists and music labels. The registration is the outcome of a reconciliation between the two groups, forged particularly through the…

The topical highlight for the week comes from Harshavardhan and Sreyoshi, writing about the Supreme Court’s decision in Patel Field Marshal and Anr. v PM Diesels and Ors. The question before the Supreme Court was whether, upon the institution of a suit for infringement under the Trademarks Act, the remedies for rectification of a trademark under Sections 47 and 57 (before the IPAB) are still available to the litigant, in case the plea of validity has been abandoned by the…

This week’s topical highlight is Prashant’s investigation into the Indian Home Minister’s claims that copyright infringement and piracy are responsible for funding terrorism. Skeptical of these claims, Prashant requested the Ministry of Home Affairs for any information they may have to back up the claims made by the Home Minister. The MHA responded that they did not have any data to back up these claims, highlighting that the strange spectre of copyright infringement being a national security issue has little…