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.

SpicyIP in Feedspot’s Top 100 IP blogs

/ By / Others

SpicyIP has been ranked eighth among the world’s top 100 IP blogs by Feedspot. Feedspot is basically an aggregator which helps one to read all the relevant blogs on a particular topic at one place. For instance, if one wants to go through all the relevant blogs on landscaping, Feedspot is the platform for you. We have had quite a few achievements so far like being included in the top 50 by Managing IP, being listed as the 8th most […]

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Is Copyright Content Neutral? : Prof. Joshua D. Sarnoff Responds to Justice Gautam Patel

/ By / Copyright

In a post that has now gone almost viral, Justice Gautam Patel reflected on the perplexing issue of whether or not copyright is content neutral. Or whether it can be subject to the filter of legality/morality. He asked a series of thought provoking questions in his post. Prof. Joshua D. Sarnoff, a widely respected professor of law at DePaul University, has now responded to some of the issues raised by Justice Gautam Patel. Prof Sarnoff has written for us earlier

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CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – III

/ By / Competition Law

CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – I and CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – II (Continued…) (ii) Whether or not Roche group tried to influence regulatory authorities so as to deny market access to the Informants? (Paragraphs 66 – 74) The Informants submitted various letters written by the Roche group to regulatory authorities. The Roche group, vide these letters, raised concerns regarding the clinical trials undertaken by the Informants for biosimilars. It tried to create a perception that

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CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – II

/ By / Competition Law

CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – I and CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – III (Continued…) c) Whether or not Roche group holds dominant position within the relevant market? (Paragraphs 52 – 58) Roche Group introduced Trastuzumab under the brand name HERCEPTIN in the year 2002. In the year 2012, it withdrew HERCEPTIN from Indian markets and introduced cheaper versions of Trastuzumab, viz., BICELTIS and HERCLON. As highlighted by the Informants, till February 2014, there was no other

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CCI Order on Pharma Major Roche – I

/ By / Competition Law

Brief background The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) ordered detailed investigation against Pharma major Roche and its two group firms for alleged anti-Competition Law modus operandi with respect to the cancer drug, Trastuzumab. The regulator’s decision was delivered on information filed by pharmaceutical companies Biocon Limited, Informant No.1 (“IP-1”) and Mylan Pharmaceuticals Private Limited, Informant No. 2 (“IP-2”) wherein they, broadly speaking, alleged violation of Section 4(2) of Competition Act, 2002 (“Abuse of dominant position”). CCI concluded that there is

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SpicyIP Tidbit: CCI Orders Investigation Against Pharma Major Roche

/ By / Competition Law

The Competition Commission of India, based on a positive prima facie determination on contravention of Section 4(2)(c) of the Competition Act, ordered investigation against pharma major Roche with respect to the cancer drug, Trastuzumab. The complaint was filed by Biocon and Mylan Pharmaceuticals. I shall be carrying a detailed analysis shortly. [Section 4. Abuse of Dominant position (1) No enterprise or group shall abuse its dominant position.] (2) There shall be an abuse of dominant position 4 [under sub-section (1),

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“Mann Ki Baat” and Censor Board of Film Certification

/ By / Copyright

It is reported that the Censor Board of Film Certification (“CBFC”), headed by Pahlaj Nihalani, had asked Dakxin Chhara to scrap the phrase ‘Mann Ki Baat’ from a dialogue in his upcoming thriller titled “Sameer”. Apparently, the sole reason was it being the title of Prime Minister Modi’s monthly radio programme to the nation. I am unable to confirm the veracity of this report. Assuming the veracity of this report, I would like to examine the legality of this fact situation.

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The ‘Artist’ who Traversed through Unchartered Territories of Law

/ By / Copyright, Others

The controversial artist, J.S.G Boggs, who ‘literally’ made money, passed away recently.  [For news reports, see here, here and here]. Mr. Boggs is said to have painstakingly reproduced British pounds, Swiss francs and American dollars, with quirky deviations. Initially, he created notes one by one, which was a time-consuming process. Later, he ran off limited-edition prints. The interesting modus operandi was as follows: He presented his currency (bills) to merchants as payment for goods and services. If the bills were

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Delhi High Court on Trans-Border Reputation in Trademark Law

/ By / Trademark

The Delhi High Court, in its judgment in Prius Auto Industries Ltd & Ors. v. Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki, inter alia considered the aspect of trans-border reputation in fairly well-detailed terms.  Both the parties were represented by leading IP practitioners. The judgment is significant for practitioners in understanding the strategy adopted, the kind of evidence submitted before the Court and finally, Court’s approach towards the same. [Note: This post shall deal only with the aspect of trans-border reputation.] Facts Toyota used

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‘Tata’ is a well-known mark, reaffirms Delhi HC judgment in Tata Sons Limited v. Ram Niwas & Ors

/ By / Trademark

The Plaintiff filed the present suit inter alia seeking a decree of permanent injunction restraining the Defendants from directly or indirectly dealing in the business of providing transport; packaging and storage of goods; travel arrangement, packaging / moving services under the domain name http://www.tatapackers.com and/or using any trademark/ description/name/device bearing the trademark TATA or any other mark which is deceptively similar to the Plaintiff’s trademark TATA. [The judgment is available here] It is contended that the Plaintiff has been continuously using

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