Author name: Inika Charles

Inika is a fifth year student at National Law University, Jodhpur, and is on the founding Board of Editors of the Journal of Intellectual Property Studies. She has a strong interest in Intellectual Property, and is fascinated with the intersection of IP with Technology and Media law. You can contact her at [email protected], or on Twitter: @inikacharles

Plain Packaging and Investor-State Disputes: Part II

/ By / Trademark

  Picking up from my previous post, where I had examined Uruguay’s victory over Philip Morris in light of other successful plain packaging regulations; I now delve into the merits of the Philip Morris-Uruguay award, as well as examine the question of expropriation of trademark rights. For background reading on this issue, we have widely covered both International as well as Indian developments in plain packaging laws in the past. More specific to plain packaging in light of Investor State […]

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Plain Packaging and Investor-State Disputes: Uruguay wins monumental victory against Philip Morris: Part I

/ By / Trademark

On the 8th of July, Uruguay won (links to: the award, and a summary of the case) a hard-fought battle in the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) proceeding brought by Philip Morris before the ICSID Tribunal. This is a decision of immense importance not only for Uruguay, but also for other countries that are currently considering plain packaging policies for tobacco products. The ICSID Tribunal upheld Uruguay’s regulations on public health and plain packaging, and even directed Philip Morris to pay

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Ericsson v. Lava – Delhi HC passes interim injunction for Lava to stop manufacture and sale

/ By / Patent

India’s smartphone patent war rages on, and its latest development is Ericsson’s provisional victory over Lava. The Delhi High Court passed an interim order in the ongoing case of Telefonktiebolaget LM Ericsson v. Lava International Ltd. which, operative from the 21st of June 2016, is an injunction order that prevents Lava from importing, exporting, manufacturing, and selling any mobile phones that use Ericsson’s patents and technology. Although this is binding only until a final order is passed, it seems unlikely that much

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The Sky’s the limit on trademark overreach

/ By / Trademark

In this post, I focus on the practice of trademarking descriptive and common terms under the umbrella of ‘secondary meaning’, and how the overreach of such protection might have adverse consequences for the public domain. This week, No Man’s Sky, a highly anticipated video game settled a three-year long dispute with Sky UK Limited (formally British Sky Broadcasting), which gives them the right to use the word ‘Sky’ in their title. This is the first defeat in what seems to

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (19-25 June)

/ By / Others

  Our Highlight of the Week was quite clearly Shan’s important announcement of the Government now allowing upto 74% Foreign Direct Investment in existing pharmaceutical companies through the automatic route as brownfield investment. Although 100% FDI was already permitted on obtaining approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, she notes that this should lead to an increase in deals in the pharma sector. In what she calls an uphill task, there will have to be a balance maintained between a foreign

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Flying cars in India by 2018?

/ By / Patent

[This post was co-authored with Madhulika Vishwanathan]   Flying cars. We’ve grown up with the fantasy – the Jetsons, Harry Potter, and then a flurry of sci-fi movies. We’ve all watched enthralled as Elroy and Judy Jetson travelled to school in their flying car capsule. Commuting on a daily basis via a flying car might become a reality in the near future, as PAL-V Europe NV a Dutch based company, prepares to launch a flying car in India. As seen

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Of judicial [un]appointments, double standards and the United States’ crumbling facade of multilateralism

/ By / Others

In what is being called a legitimacy crisis, the WTO faces the vacation of two Appellate Body (AB) seats as the United States has, in an unprecedented move – opposed the re-appointment of Mr. Seung Wha Chang, from South Korea. And in what seems to be a knee jerk reaction, South Korea has now announced their opposition to the re-appointment of any AB members, bringing their number down from seven to five – as it is only Ms Yuejiao Zhang

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Rectangles with rounded corners – Caltech, the newest entrant to Apple’s Patent War

/ By / Innovation, Patent

“It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners,” Samsung said in a statement following the 2012 verdict that went against them. Standing strong that the decision was not the last word on the matter, the much awaited appeal to the Supreme Court is to be heard in October this year. In a similar statement, Tim Cook applauded the decision for the loud and clear message that it sent:

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