Author name: Nikhil Purohit

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The Daily Guardian Controversy: News, Misinformation, and a Passing Off Perspective

/ By / Trademark

Recently, a controversy erupted regarding an article shared by many of the prominent leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (‘BJP’), praising the hard work of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and criticising the “opposition’s barbs”. This article was published on a website called ‘The Daily Guardian’. This led many to criticize it as a fake website trying to portray itself as associated with the prominent news agency, ‘The Guardian’. Some have criticised the concerned article to be misinformation (see here). …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (May 31 – June 6)

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

Topical Highlight Phone Pe v. Bharat Pe: Whether Vernacular Wordplay Can Save from Being Labelled Generic? In this guest post, Devangini responds to an earlier guest post on the Delhi High Court’s recent interim injunction order in Phone Pe v. Bharat Pe trademark dispute. She first summarises the history of the case, the arguments, and the court’s holding. She critiques the court’s reliance on the Delhi High Court case of Marico v. Agrotech to deny the plaintiff’s claim on two …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (May 24 – 30)

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

NUALS’ 7th CIPR National Essay Writing Competition [Submit by July 4] We informed the readers about an essay competition being organized by the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi for law students on the theme ‘IP & SMEs: Taking Ideas to Market’. The submission deadline for the competition is July 4, 2021. For further details including submission guidelines and eligibility, please refer to the post.   Book Launch Webinar: ‘The Protection of Intellectual Property …

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Special 301 Report 2021: Copyrights, Enforcement, and the Same Old Complaints

/ By / Copyright, Overlaps in IP, Trademark

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (‘USTR’) recently released its Annual Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property Protection (‘Report’). To borrow Swaraj’s description of an earlier Report, the Special 301 Report “is a unilateral measure taken by the USTR which essentially ranks countries according to how much the US appreciates their IP regimes, and this is used as a kind of [political] ‘shaming’ mechanism to coerce countries into ‘strengthening’ their IP regimes to match the TRIPS-plus standards that …

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Bombay HC Rejects Injunction Plea in Passing Off Action against Serum Institute of India for the ‘Covishield’ Mark

/ By / COVID-19, Trademark

Recently, a Nanded-based pharmaceutical company, Cutis Biotech (‘Cutis’), had filed a passing off suit against Serum Institute of India (‘SII’) for the use of the mark ‘Covishield’. SII has been using the mark for the vaccines manufactured by it while Cutis has been using it for its products such as sanitisers and disinfectants. We had earlier informed our readers about the initial suit filed by Cutis in the Nanded District Court. The suit was subsequently filed in a Pune commercial …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 26- May 2)

/ By / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

Topical Highlight Supreme Court Weighs in on the Crisis: Vaccine Price Equity, Compulsory Licensing and Free Speech Online In this post, Adyasha analyses the recent proceedings in the suo motu case taken up by the Supreme Court regarding matters concerning the Covid-19 pandemic. She first discusses the concerns regarding the pricing of vaccines and notes that the court asked the right questions from the Central Government as to the differential pricing for the Centre and other entities, deviation from the …

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Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

/ By / Copyright, Privacy, Trademark

It is a common practice for political parties to utilise songs, either original or non-original, as part of their election campaigns. Like most other things in life though, politicians have frequently thought themselves above the law when it comes to asking for permissions for using copyrighted songs! It has led to protests in countries such as the United States by artists against political usage of their music. A prominent controversy involving Rihanna’s objection to Donald Trump using her songs at …

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Copyright Rules Amendment 2021: Appellate Board, Copyright Societies, and More

/ By / Copyright

The Central Government recently notified the Copyright (Amendment) Rules, 2021 (the ‘amendments’) on March 30, amending the Copyright Rules, 2013. Notably, around 2 years back, on May 30, 2019, a draft of these amendments was released for public comments. The amendments build upon this draft and reflect some similar changes as the draft, but at the same time they differ from the draft in several substantive aspects. In this post, I shall highlight the key implications of the 2021 amendments …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 22 – 28)

/ By / Copyright, Design, Patent, Trade Secret, Trademark

Topical Highlight Delhi HC Looks Into Access And Innovation Questions On Rare Diseases In this post, Swaraj analyses an order issued by Justice Prathiba M. Singh of the Delhi High Court with regards to patients suffering from ‘rare diseases’. The order sets out three major directives: a) requiring the government to finalize the long pending National Health Policy for Rare Diseases, b) setting up of a ‘National Consortium for Research and Development on therapeutics for Rare Diseases’, and c) setting …

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Copyright and Trademark Offences – Bailable or Not?: Bombay HC Also Weighs In

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

Recently, the Bombay High Court was faced with a controversial question of law while hearing an anticipatory bail application. The bail application was filed in response to a criminal report registered, inter alia, under Section 63 of the Copyright Act and Section 103 of the Trade Marks Act. The primary issue addressed by the court was whether these offences are bailable in nature or non-bailable. The court ruled on the side of the latter, holding these offences to be non-bailable. …

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