Division Bench Stays the Interim Injunction Granted to Kibow Biotech, calls Methodology of the Single Judge Bench for Establishing Prima Facie case “Flawed”

by Praharsh Gour September 13, 2021

The present post discusses another instance of interim injunctions imposed by our courts on the basis of problematic rationale. Sometime back, I reported on an interim injunction order by a Single Judge Bench of Madras High Court against La Renon Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and Stanford Labs Pvt. Ltd (the defendants). Without narrating the background in detail again, the order was passed in an ongoing patent infringement dispute (covered here and here for the blog) surrounding Plaintiff no. 2’s (Kibow Biotech)…

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Ensuring Access to TB drugs: Is Compulsory License the Way?

by Praharsh Gour August 13, 2021

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This Post has been co-authored by Rahul Bajaj and Praharsh Gour. Rahul is presently working as a Senior Resident Fellow, Partnerships at Vidhi. Before his stint with Vidhi, Rahul has worked as a law clerk for Justice D. Y Chandrachud (2020-21) and is a Rhodes Scholar (2018). He has also blogged for us in the past and was the SpicyIP Fellow for 2016. Readers can access posts by Rahul here. [Note: Long post ahead] Ensuring Access to TB drugs: Is…

Back from the Dead? Parliamentary Committee on IP suggests against scrapping of IPAB

by Praharsh Gour July 26, 2021

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One may recall the scene in Macbeth where he encounters the ghost of his former friend Banquo and exclaims in disbelief. I am sure many would have exclaimed with similar sentiment after reading the suggestions of the recent Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Review of IPR regime in India, which suggests re-institution of IPAB. At the outset, let me clarify, I am in no way against the idea of having a dedicated IP court, which will ensure timely disposal of…

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Fear Won’t Take You Anywhere: Delhi HC Revisits Bolar Exception, Rules Apprehensions Cannot Deny Liberty under Section 107A

by Praharsh Gour July 21, 2021

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The Delhi High Court in an order dated 20th July, 2021 vacated an ex-parte interim injunction (pdf), allowing the SMS Pharmaceuticals to export Merck’s patented anti-diabetic drug ‘Sitagliptin’ for R&D purposes on the condition that it files an affidavit mentioning the quantities of the drug exported and undertaking that the export is only for the above said purpose. While coming to this understanding, the court relied extensively on the Single Judge’s and Division Bench’s decisions in Bayer v. Union of…

COVID-19 Data Exclusivity Patent Trade Secret

Compulsion for Compulsory Licenses for Covid Vaccines Climbs: But Are They the Cure?

by Praharsh Gour May 14, 2021

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On 11th May, it was reported that Kerala High Court has sought a response from the Central government on a PIL seeking direction to the government to invoke the compulsory license (CL) provisions for the COVID-19 vaccines. In the PIL, the Petitioner (Adv. Gopakumar GV) argues that in the present crisis resorting to CL will assist the nation to ramp up the quantity of vaccine output and thus overcome its scarcity. As reported before, the government is already facing a…

COVID-19 Patent

Centre Sees No Compulsion to Issue Compulsory Licenses for Covid Drugs

by Praharsh Gour May 10, 2021

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May 2021 has been an interesting month so far for compulsory licenses. First the Supreme Court inquired about the Government’s position on issuing CLs for COVID-19 related drugs and vaccines, then Natco filed an application requesting a compulsory license for Baricitinib. This is followed by Delhi HC’s interim order, where it too hinted that the Central government could explore the alternative of compulsory licensing. Even on the international front, one of the major opponents of the compulsory license mechanism- the…

COVID-19 Patent

A Recipe for Disaster: Export Bans, TRIPS Waiver and Hyper Nationalism

by Praharsh Gour April 25, 2021

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(Long post ahead) On 23rd April, Ned Price, a spokesperson for the US State Department, revealed that the Biden administration is not considering lifting the export bans on the necessary raw materials for the COVID-19 vaccine. This refusal comes in response to the requests (see here and here) made by the SII CEO Adar Poonawalla to get rid of the export bans and assist in ramping up the outputs of vaccines in the global market. (Side note: Back in Feb,…

COVID-19 Drug Regulation Patent

Indian Govt. Permits Manufacture of Covaxin by Haffkine Institute – But Why Not Others Too?

by Praharsh Gour April 16, 2021

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(This post has been co-authored with Swaraj Barooah) In what seems like a whiff of good news amidst the debacle surrounding availability of COVID-19 vaccine in India, the Central Government has permitted the Haffkine Institute to manufacture Covaxin, on a “technology transfer” basis, for a period of one year. This is definitely needed and hopefully will address the vaccine shortage in the country to some extent. But does this mean that the Central Government had the IP and technology transfer…

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Madras High Court Grants Interim Injunction to Kibow Biotech, Making Problematic Observations on Patentability of Subject Matter

by Praharsh Gour April 5, 2021

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Recently Madras High Court added another tale in the litigation scrimmage between US corporate Kibow Biotech and Indian entities La Renon Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and Stanford Labs Pvt. Ltd. (not to be confused with the American university) by “making absolute” a previously granted interim injunction against the Indian entities, via its order dated 01/04/2021 (pdf). Back in 2013 we had reported about a rare occurrence in Indian IP litigation where the IPAB’s order against the revocation of a patent was…

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021

by Praharsh Gour April 5, 2021

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IPAB has been in the eye of the storm since its inception. While there are ardent believers of the institution (See here and here), there are equally strong arguments by the ones against it (few of them advanced by the former Chairperson of the institution itself!) (See here here and here). A few months ago, the Executive seemingly laid the debate to rest by introducing the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Bill 2021, proposing to scrap IPAB. However,…

IP Noob { This is an interesting comment - “abuse of the copyright system could have repercussions on Aaj Tak’s ability to file future takedown requests”. Could you explain the basis... }
IP Hawk { Youtube's takedown system works both ways - if Newslaundry disputes the copyright claim, Aaj Tak will have 30 days to either retract their claim or maintain it, in... }
Katim { Can you site the judgement which makes the decisions of IPAB binding upon controller of patents even after its abolishment? }
{ Can you cite any judgement which makes the judgement of IPAB binding upon controller of patents even after its abolishment ? }
Sathya { Interesting! Section 83 of the Patents Act outlines general conditions applicable to working of Patented inventions and goes onto expound on compulsory licensing in Section 84 according to... }