Author name: Mathews P. George

Mathews is a graduate of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He pursued LLM in 'IP and Competition Law' from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (a joint collaboration of Max Plank Institute for Innovation and Competition, University of Augsburg, Technical University of Munich and George Washington University, Washington). His areas of practice include Technology Law in general (IPR, Competition Law, Data Protection Law etc) Corporate Law, Contract Law and Public Law (Constitutional Law and Criminal Law). He practises law and policy at both national and international levels. Presently, he is in Kerala. In addition to litigation before various courts in Kerala, he is also involved in various national and international policy and academic initiatives.

Indian Budget 2014 – Highlights & Comments

/ By / Innovation, Others, Overlaps in IP

The Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley presented the Budget for 2014-15 (“Budget 2014”) yesterday. I intend to highlight the relevant proposals and make some comments in this regard. Kindly note that my comments do not, in any manner, reflect my views on other parts of the budget. A budget is essentially a policy statement of the government. It does reflect its priorities and understanding on various issues. The Budget 2014 puts forward some salubrious proposals. I am, however, inclined to […]

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Introducing Prashant’s article in LI on judicial reforms

/ By / Others

 Prashant has recently given an excellent opinion in LI titled ‘To fix the most fundamental problems of the Indian judiciary, we must finish what Fali & others started’. As someone who advocates quality, outcome oriented reforms in judiciary; I strongly recommend this write-up to the legal fraternity. The present government, which came to power on a strong mandate, enjoys an unparalleled opportunity to address the serious lacunae in the justice delivery mechanism – especially when Mr. Arun Jaitley and Mr. Ravi Shankar

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Call for Natural Justice Fellowship Program Applications and Internship Applications

/ By / Event

Natural Justice, a reputed international NGO working towards biodiversity conservation and strengthening local communities, has called for applications for the Natural Justice Fellowship Program and the Internship program. Note that the Fellowship carries with it a monthly honorarium of twenty thousand rupees. 4 July 2014 is the deadline for the fellowship program. The internship positions are unpaid. Internship applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. For details, see here. As I know from various sources, Natural Justice is a

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A Note on M/S. Jagdamba Impex v. M/S. Tristar Products Pvt. Ltd

/ By / Copyright, Design

Background The Delhi HC, in M/S. Jagdamba Impex (“Appellant” who is the original defendant) v. M/S. Tristar Products Pvt. Ltd (“Respondent” who is the original plaintiff) (FAO No. 128/2014 & CM Nos. 7778-79/2014 & FAO No. 129/2014 & CM Nos. 7782-83/2014), examined the applicability of Section 15(2) of Copyright Act, 1957. The first appeal was filed under Order 43 Rule 1(r) CPC impugning the order of the trial court dated 19.2.2014 which had earlier allowed the application of the Respondent

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SPICY IP TIDBIT: Govt for discussion paper on royalty payment ceiling

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

Background We had earlier reported that the Indian government, in 2009, waived the requirement of prior government approval in case of payment of royalty by Indian companies to multinational corporations and allowed such payments through the automatic route. Later, we also carried a Business Standard report which stated that the aforesaid relaxation is being used by the MNCs to divert a major portion of the profits made by their Indian arms in the form of royalty payments and technology transfer

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SPICY IP TIDBIT: Row over ‘ISEED’ mark

/ By / Trademark

According to Business Standard report, a Gurgaon court issued an interim order restraining a management institute from using its name and acronym ‘ISEED’ noting that it is deceptively similar to the name of another business school, ‘iSEED’. The petitioner, while contending prior use, drew attention to the pending application for the registration of the trademark ‘iSEED’. As it is an interim order, the Court wouldn’t have dealt with the merits of the case. In this context, I would like to

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UNITAID on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

/ By / Others, Uncategorized

UNITAID, which is hosted and administered by World Health Organisation, in its report titled “The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Implications for Access to Medicines and Public Health” (“Report”), voiced its opposition against Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (“TPPA”) which encapsulates TRIPS plus commitments. TPPA is positioned as a model agreement for future trade agreements including those involving developing countries. According to the Report, such agreements will delay generic market entry and competition which will in turn lead to increased prices of pharmaceuticals and

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SpicyIP Tidbit: IPAB Stays the Revocation of Pfizer’s Patent

/ By / Patent

The Chennai Patent Office had earlier revoked Pfizer’s patent on Detrol LA in response to a post grant opposition initiated by Ranbaxy. Detrol LA (extended release capsules of tolterodine) is used for symptomatic treatment of urinary incontinence/overactive bladder syndrome. Madhulika analysed the aforesaid Order here. The aforesaid revocation Order has now been stayed by the IPAB. As the IPAB Order is presently not available online, I am relying on the Business Standard report which is available here. According to the report,

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EU draft legislation on clinical drugs trials

/ By / Drug Regulation

European Union is expected to finalise and give formal approval to the draft legislation on clinical drugs trials on 02 April 2014. The draft legislation inter alia requires all trial data to be placed in an accessible database. It also specifies that study protocols and full clinical study reports should be made public after approval. As members deliberate on the legislation, European Court of Justice (“ECJ“) will emerge as the legal battle field between drug companies and European Medicines Agency (“EMA“), the

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Teva loses in the patent battle against NATCO

/ By / Patent

Introduction The Delhi HC, in a recent judgment, returned the plaint filed by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (“Teva”), Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. (“Yeda”) and Teva API India Limited (“Plaintiffs”) seeking permanent injunction for restraining NATCO from manufacturing Glatiramer Acetate product (Copaxone) for sale in the US. It was held that the Court did not enjoy the jurisdiction to entertain the suit. For BusinessLine report, see here. [Glatiramer Acetate (also known as Copolymer 1, Cop-1 or Copaxone – as marketed by Teva Pharmaceuticals) is

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