Author name: Praharsh Gour

Praharsh Gour is an Editor and Researcher at SpicyIP, where he writes on developments in intellectual property law, innovation policy, and international trade. His work focuses on the intersection of IP and international trade, particularly the realpolitik implications of global IP enforcement for the Global South, including questions of access, regulatory governance, and institutional reform. He holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from Hidayatullah National Law University and a Master’s degree from South Asian University. Prior to joining SpicyIP, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, where he assisted in matters concerning countervailing duties, antidumping, and safeguard investigations.

A meme about UNO where in one picture the card says "Come up with a robust and prompt solution to the IP challenges during the Pandemic or draw 25" and in next picture the player is holding 25 cards.

WTO Decides on the Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: Is Late as Good as Never? 

/ By / COVID-19, Patent

[This post has been co-authored by Rahul Bajaj and Praharsh Gour. Rahul is an attorney at IRA Law and a former Senior Resident Fellow at Vidhi. Rahul is a Rhodes Scholar (2018) and has worked as a law clerk for Justice D. Y Chandrachud (2020-21). He has also blogged for us in the past and was the SpicyIP Fellow for 2016. Readers can access posts by Rahul here. Views expressed in the post are personal] Since the TRIPS waiver was […]

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Breaking: 12th WTO Ministerial Conference concludes with a Draft Decision on TRIPS (waiver?)

/ By / COVID-19, Patent

After 2 long years and the whole hubbub that the 12th Ministerial Conference was, (see here here and here) WTO has finally come up with the Draft Ministerial Decision On The TRIPS Agreement. The text is bound to have the world split on what to make of it. While multiple detailed assessments of this Draft Decision are due in course, I’ll quickly highlight a few key pointers which stand out (for better or worse)  Footnote 1: Defines ‘eligible Members’ to

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Delhi High Court Appoints an Academic Expert to Aid the Court in Interpreting Section 52(1)(za) of Copyright Act

/ By / Copyright

Some ten years ago, post Prof. Basheer’s intervention before the Supreme Court in the Novartis case, Prashant had commented “Academics in India are usually cloistered in their classrooms and conference rooms. I hope we have several more of such interventions, especially since we now have a breed of brilliant young academics in India”. And now almost a decade later, the Indian judiciary will be assisted by another academic in an IP dispute, this time in form of  Prof. Arul George

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Delhi High Court grants interim injunction to Novartis against Natco’s use of Revolade patent 

/ By / Patent

The Delhi High Court recently granted an interlocutory injunction to Novartis against Natco’s use of Eltrombopag Olamine (EO). The debate at the crux of the dispute is, or rather was, the dichotomy between deference to the validity of a granted patent vis-a-vis the challenge to its validity and consequently disregarding the exclusivity granted to it, in litigation. The court in the present matter seemed to have sided with the former and placed the ‘presumption’ of validity of a patent at

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Delhi High Court extends the deadline to submit comments on Delhi High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, 2021

/ By / Others

The Delhi High Court Registry on October 26, 2021 announced an extension for submitting suggestions and comments on the proposed Delhi High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, 2021. As per this, the new deadline stands as November 10, 2021.  The proposed rules come out as a result of the Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021, and the recommendations made by the committee constituted by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Justice D. N Patel, to further the implementation of

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

/ By / Patent

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)

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

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

/ By / Patent

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

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

/ By / Copyright, Design, Geographical Indication, Patent, Plant Variety Protection, Trademark

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 / Patent

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

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

/ By / COVID-19, Data Exclusivity, Patent, Trade Secret

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

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