Author name: Namratha Murugeshan

Drug Price Controls in the US: Same, Same but Different?

/ By / Drug Regulation, Innovation

In 2017, when India introduced price controls on coronary stents, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) had requested the Prime Minister to not extend price controls to additional medical devices. When India refused to heed to the request, amongst other things, the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers reported the measure of price capping to be without a sense of differentiation between newer and older products (here, p. 235), India’s eligibility for US’ Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) […]

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (September 6 – 12)

/ By / Others

Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Traditional Knowledge: Idealistic Expectations or Unworkable Ideas? Continuing our series of posts on the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report, I wrote about the recommendations on IPR and traditional knowledge. I covered the recommendations of the Report which includes reforming Section 3(p) of the Patents Act to incentivize TK-based innovation, creating a proper documentation mechanism to prevent misappropriation of TK, and registration of traditional knowledge as GIs. Analysing these recommendations, I note that they represent a shifting

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Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Traditional Knowledge: Idealistic Expectations or Unworkable Ideas?

/ By / Patent, Traditional Knowledge

Continuing our series of posts on the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Review of the IPR Regime in India, in this post I will be covering the Report’s recommendations on IPR and Traditional Knowledge (TK). The other posts on the Report can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Highlights from the Report The Committee Report’s observations on TK start off with a lament on how TK and indigenous inventions by grassroot level innovators often do not meet the

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (August 16 – 22)

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

PV Sindhu’s Olympics Victory: How Non-Sponsors Skirt the Law by ‘Congratulating’ Athletes In a guest post, Satchit Bhogle covered the issue of infringement of personality rights. Writing this post in the context of PV Sindhu’s success at the Tokyo Olympics and how that has spurred companies who do not sponsor her to put up congratulatory messages on social media with their brand logos and while using her images, Satchit analyses the discourse on the right to publicity surrounding the issue.

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (July 26 – August 1)

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

Topical Highlight A Parliamentary Standing Committee Report that Challenges the Fine Balances Within the IP System In a guest post, Dr. Arul George Scaria writes about the macro and structural issues with the recently released Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on IPR. He notes the list of recommendations in the Report while highlighting the pro-industry nature of the same. The post focuses on three methodological flaws in the Report. Dr. Scaria points out that the Report lacks focused questions of enquiry

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Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on IPR: Tipping the Scales of Patent Law? Part II

/ By / Innovation, Patent

In the first part of this post, I had covered the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s Report recommendations on amendments to Section 3 of the Patents Act. Continuing the same thread of suggested reforms, in this post I will be analyzing the other changes recommended to the Act that focus on a few procedural provisions. The Report informs that these procedural changes are being suggested to bring in some flexibility in the Patents Act to ensure that the validity of patents is

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Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on IPR: Tipping the Scales of Patent Law? Part I

/ By / Innovation, Patent

As is well known now, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce tabled its Report on the IPR regime in India last week. In about 150 pages the Report suggests a major reevaluation of the IP framework in the country. In an approach that seems to focus on the bigger picture while suggesting fairly pointed reforms, the Report misses both the trees and the forest. Some of the conspicuous issues with the Report have been covered by Dr. Scaria (here), Praharsh

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Pandemic Push: Royalty-Based Business Model for Better Downstream Revenue for Musicians

/ By / Copyright, COVID-19

A recent article by Paul Sullivan in the New York Times reported on an interesting change occurring in the music industry due to the pandemic. With live performances practically being shut down due to the pandemic, musicians across the world lost a significant portion of their income stream. While online streaming was expected to be a substitute, it turned out to be abysmally low [You can read about how much musicians make through streaming services here and here]. With this

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SCOTUS Grants ‘Booking.com’ Trademark Protection: How Far can Domain Name Trademark Protection Extend?

/ By / Trademark

Recently, the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS), in the Booking.com decision held that a generic .com domain name can obtain a trademark registration under certain conditions. With SCOTUS granting limited protection to generic .com domain names, an interesting question arises as to what will happen when there is a trademark dispute between a .com domain name and a .in domain name and if it is now possible for a trademarked generic .com name to block the registration of a generic

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (July 20 – 26)

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

Topical Highlight Does JioMeet’s GUI Infringe Copyright in Zoom’s Software? Nikhil wrote about the controversy of JioMeet’s GUI infringing Zoom’s software. Addressing the controversy that ensued after JioMeet was released, the issue of non-literal copying of computer software is examined. Nikhil explores the primary considerations that courts would need to address on the issue and the possible outcomes. First, the copyrightability of Zoom’s GUI is analyzed under Section 2(o) and Section 2(ffc) of the Copyright Act. Then, the particular elements

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