Author name: Praharsh Gour

SpicyIP Tidbit: Law Student Claiming Copyright Infringement Gets an Interim Injunction Against 2 Law Asst. Professors

/ By / Copyright

Ask anyone in academia what’s their worst nightmare. And probably, they’ll respond by saying “plagiarism.” Many face it, but only seldom do we hear stories where someone does something about it. Sharing one fascinating story here, a law student sued a law college, two of its professors and the editor of a journal alleging copyright infringement. The suit was instituted by Aathira Mannath A. (plaintiff), who alleged that earlier in 2023, she had participated in the “Global Jural Conclave 2023” …

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It’s a Product Patent… It’s a Process Patent… It’s Product-by-Process Patent!

/ By / Patent

In a significant development, the Delhi High Court on July 24, 2023 passed a detailed order on ‘product-by-process’ patent claims in Vifor International Ltd. v. MSN Laboratories Pvt. Ltd and anr. With this order the court disposed of different interim applications filed in 4 suits (three suits were filed by Vifor and Emcure against MSN Labs, Dr. Reddy Labs and Corona Remedies Pvt. Ltd. and the fourth one was filed by Virchow Biotech against Vifor), and refused to grant an …

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Hollow Victory? Delhi High Court Says Patents Act Supersedes Competition Act, with Shaky Reasons

/ By / Patent

[Long Post ahead] Who wins in a conflict between the Competition Act and the Patents Act? That’s been the central bone of contention in two big disputes for almost a decade now. In both disputes, Justice Vibhu Bakhru of the Delhi High Court (DHC) had ordered that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) can intervene in patent licensing disputes under Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act – first in 2016 (Ericsson v. CCI) and then again in 2020 …

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Who’s Filing These Patents, and Are They Working Alright? Looking at the Data from the IPO Annual Reports

/ By / Patent

[This post is co-authored with Swaraj Paul Barooah and Anshuman Kar. Anshuman, a SpicyIP intern, is a third year law student at National Law University, Odisha.] As per the data in the 2021-22 IP India Annual Report, a total of 66,440 applications were filed in India, which is 7,937 applications more than the last year’s filings (58,503). Appreciating the trend of rising patent applications and eventual grants, last year the Minister of Commerce lauded the efforts of the DPIIT in “strengthening” …

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CGPDTM to Recruit 553 Patent and Designs Examiners via QCI

/ By / Patent

Starting the day with some good news, the office of Controller General of Patent Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) has issued a notification for recruiting 553 Patent and Designs Examiners! However, it will be done via the Quality Council of India – more details on that later below. Those familiar with the Indian IP administration will know that an inadequate workforce is a systematic challenge that has plagued the functioning of the Indian patent office and the office of CGPDTM, generally, …

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Results for Patent and Trademark Agent Exams Are Out!!!

/ By / Patent, Trademark

The Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks released the results for the 2023 Patent and Trademark Agent examinations. Of 1496 candidates who appeared for the Trademark Agent Exam, 167 had earlier qualified for the viva voice. Of these, 103 applicants have passed the exam.  With regard to the Patent Agent Exam, of 5695 candidates who appeared for the examination, 716 had earlier qualified for the viva voice. Of these, 529 applicants have cleared the exams.  While congratulations …

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DHC IPD Roster Revision: Benches of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice C. Hari Shankar to Function as the DHC IPD 

/ By / Others

Delhi High Court’s Intellectual Property Division sees the return of Justice Prathiba M. Singh to the roster who will now take charge of the division, along with Justice C. Hari Shankar. In a notification dated June 26, 2023 (pdf), it is stated that the new roster will be operational from July 3, 2023, and the matters which will be heard by the IPD will be assigned by the Judge In-Charge (Original Side), Justice Yogesh Khanna.  The roster for the IPD …

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Hear Me Out! Assessment of Phonetic Similarity is as Important as that of Visual Similarity: An Assessment of INSEAD v. Fullstack Education

/ By / Trademark

[This post is co-authored with SpicyIP Intern Surima Singh. Surima is a fifth-year student pursuing B.A., LL.B from Christ Academy Institute of Law, Bengaluru. As she describes herself, she developed a keen interest in law and justice from an early stage. Her area of interest lies in Constitutional law and IP laws.] On May 17, the Delhi High Court revoked Fullstack Education’s (respondent) INSAID mark for being deceptively similar to the Institut Europeen D Administration Des Affaires, Insead, Association’s (petitioner) …

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DHC’s IPD Annual Report a Positive Step for Transparency – Here’s How It Could Go Further

/ By / Others

To mark the occasion of World IP Day on 26th April 2023, the Delhi High Court’s IP Division (IPD) released its annual report for 2022-23, detailing the progress made by it in the past 1 year. Released after a few months from the date of IPD’s 1st anniversary i.e. 28th February 2023, the report is full of interesting comments from the Judges of the IPD and the members of the IP Bar and has a dedicated chapter summarizing the key …

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Delhi High Court Sets Aside 3 Orders from the Patent Office and the Trademark Registry, in 1 day!

/ By / Patent, Trademark

On April 28, 2023, Justice Amit Bansal of the Delhi High Court passed three separate orders, all dealing with a similar issue- unclear, unreasoned orders from the Patent Office and the Trademark Registry (IP Offices) that rejected the patent/ trademark applications. While there has been a recent rising trend of such orders from the court (see here, here, here, here and here) wherein the IP Offices’ orders were remanded back for being cryptic, unclear on the grounds of objection, rejecting …

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