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 Sigh of Relief for IPO Officers as Ministry of Commerce Scraps 259(!) Show Cause Notices

/ By / Patent

On July 8, Ananthakrishnan G in the Indian Express reported that the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has ordered withdrawal of the 159 show cause notices issued to different officers of the Indian Patent Office. This move seemingly comes after the proceedings at the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) where the All India Patent Officers Welfare Association (the petitioner) had argued that the power to issue these show cause notices lies with the MoC’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade […]

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CGPDTM Announces Dates for 2025 Trademark and Patent Agent Exams

/ By / Patent, Trademark

The office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) on July 2, has notified the 2025 Patent and Trademarks Agent Exams. The Trademark Agent Exam is likely to be held on  January 04, 2025 and the Patent Agent Exam is likely to be held on January 5, 2025. Both the exams will be organized in 13 locations (one less than the number of locations for 2024 exams.) This time the exams will be organized in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal,

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Karnataka High Court Forms a Sub-Committee to Draft IPD Rules

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

In an important development, the Karnataka High Court on June 20 released a notification forming a sub-committee to draft rules for establishing an IP Division. The sub-committee comprises Registrar (Judicial), Karnataka High Court (the position is presently held by Mr. E. Rajeeva Gowda)  and Prof. Dr. Arul Scaria, Associate Professor, NLSIU, Bangalore. With this, the Karnataka High Court seems to be the latest High Court on its way to establish a dedicated IP Division. In the gamut of high courts,

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Irregularities in the Patent Examiner Recruitment Exams? DHC to Decide on the Allegations

/ By / Patent

On June 16, the much awaited results of the three phrased exams for the recruitment of Patent Examiners were declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Originally meant to recruit 553 Examiners, as per the results, the NTA has “provisionally” recruited 550 Examiners who will then be subjected to another round of verification by the Controlling Authority. In a trifecta of controversies for both the NTA and the Patent Examiner recruitment process, we have now learnt that a writ petition

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DHC Imposes INR 217 Crores as Damages in a Patent Dispute, Mostly Relying on Estimates

/ By / Patent

The May 16 judgement of the Delhi High Court in Communication Components Antenna v. Mobi Antenna Technologies got every litigant’s antennas up for its imposition of damages of INR 217 Crores on the defendant! In a 83 paged decision authored by Justice Jyoti Singh, the judgement (hopefully) ends a 14 year old patent infringement dispute between TenXc Wireless Inc. (whose patent was later acquired by the present plaintiff- Communication Components Antenna INC) and Mobi Antenna Technologies (the defendant). The suit

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Finally, WIPO Adopts a Treaty on IP, Genetic Resources and Associated TK! But at What Cost?

/ By / Patent, Traditional Knowledge

25 years since Colombia first brought the issue of protection of IP rights of indigenous communities, and 14 years since the Text based negotiations on the agreement commenced, WIPO finally adopted a Treaty on IP, Genetic Resources (GR) and Associated Traditional Knowledge (TK) on May 24, 2024. Adopted in the recently concluded Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, 2024, the Treaty is the fruit of the WIPO’s special body’s (Intergovernmental Committee on IP and Genetic Resources, Traditional

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What’s in a Name? Taking a look at IPO’s Interesting Observations on Benami Pre-Grant Oppositions

/ By / Patent

The recent decision of the Indian Patent Office in Suman Das v. Arcelormittal (Application no. IN 201717013441) emphasizes the need to pay attention to the content of the opposition itself instead of focusing on the identity and qualifications of the opponent – a point often repeated in previous posts on the blog (see here, here, and here). Considering that it’s only a tidbit we are not going into the merits of the case and interested readers can refer to the

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Delhi High Court Clarifies the Position on Writ Jurisdiction Against Orders Rejecting a Pre-grant Opposition 

/ By / Patent

In Rich Products Corporation v. The Controller of Patents (dt. May 1, 2024), a division bench of the Delhi High Court has killed two birds with one stone. Hearing an appeal against a Single Judge order refusing to entertain a writ petition against the Controller’s decision to reject a pre grant opposition, the Court stated that the petitioner (who had filed the pre-grant) should rather exhaust existing legal remedies under the Patents Act. The Court clarified that under the extraordinary

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Some Thoughts on the “Fairness” of the Delhi High Court’s Ericsson-Lava FRAND Determination- Part II

/ By / Patent

[This post is co-authored with Swaraj Paul Barooah.] This is Part II of the two part post on the recent Delhi High Court decision on the Ericsson-Lava SEP dispute. In Part I of the post we focussed on locating reasons for the FRAND determination by the Court. This part focuses on the Court’s findings on and calculation of damages payable to Ericsson, while critiquing the reasons (and the lack thereof) in the judgment. We shall also highlight the issues in

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CGPDTM Invites Feedback on IP Administration in the Country

/ By / Copyright, Design, Geographical Indication, Patent, Trademark

In a welcome move, the office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) has invited feedback on IP administration in the country by CGPDTM, and the Copyright and GI Registries. For this, the Office has released a 6 page questionnaire on April 15 and has kept April 22 11:59 PM as the deadline to share the responses to this questionnaire. The questionnaire specifies that the feedback will be kept confidential and only the aggregate data from the survey

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