Author name: Praharsh Gour

By Whom and How Are Our Patent Examiners Being Recruited? Digging Past the Recent Re-Notification of the Exams

/ By / Design, Patent

This post is co-authored with Swaraj. Three months after scrapping the preliminary exams for the recruitment of patent and designs examiners, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has re-notified the preliminary exams to be conducted on December 21. Previously, the exams were canceled just a day after they were conducted, owing to unspecified “irregularities/ technical reasons”. Apart from the date, this time the organizers of the exams have been changed as well, with the National Testing […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: India-Pakistan Basmati Dispute Dismissed by DHC

/ By / Geographical Indication, Trademark

Adding another layer of spice to the Basmati rice IP dispute between India and Pakistan, recently the Delhi High Court dismissed the 15 years old suit (pdf) against the export of Basmati rice by India, for non-prosecution from the plaintiff since 2020. As a quick background, this suit was filed seeking an injunction against the Govt. of India’s notification permitting export of “evolved” Basmati Rice under the mark “Super Basmati”. The suit was filed by Trading Corporation of Pakistan Pvt.

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SpicyIP Tidbit: DHC Observes That Evidence for Enhanced Efficacy Should Be Filed Before the Final Hearing

/ By / Patent

The nuances of Section 3(d) continue to plague and please litigants, depending on which side of it they end up falling. One issue that regularly pops up is the clash between filing timelines, and clinical trial data necessary to prove ‘enhanced efficacy’, as required to get by the Section 3(d) barrier. Patent applications are often filed as soon as a potential invention is noticed, while clinical trials take years to complete.  Adding to judicial thought on this point, in a

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Division Bench of the Delhi High Court’s (Divisive?) Clarification on Divisional Applications

/ By / Patent

[This post has been co-authored with SpicyIP intern Sidhi Pramodh Rayudu with research assistance from Aadvika Anandal. Sidhi is a final year B.A. LL.B (Hons) student at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. Aadvika is a second year student B.A. LL.B (Hons) at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.] Is “plurality of an invention” indispensable for maintaining a Divisional Application? If so, where should this invention be disclosed? After the divergent understanding of the two Single Benches of the Delhi High Court,

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Advocate Faces Music for Concocting a Fake IPAB Order!

/ By / Overlaps in IP

In December, 2022 Gaurangi wrote about a rather interesting case (Ab Mauri India Private Limited vs Vicky Aggarwal & Ors.) wherein the Delhi High Court had initiated a criminal contempt proceeding against the defendants for producing a fake IPAB order and placed the matter before the Chief Justice for reference to the appropriate division bench. Bringing the matter to a seeming end, a division bench comprising of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Shalinder Kaur has now directed the Bar

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HULM Entertainment v.  Fantasy Sports: Reanalysing Originality, Idea-Expression Dichotomy and Copyrightability of GUIs

/ By / Copyright

[This post is co-authored with Tejaswini Kaushal with inputs from Swaraj and an anonymous reader. Tejaswini is a 3rd-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow. She is keenly interested in Intellectual Property Law, Technology Law, and Corporate Law]. The ongoing copyright dispute between Hulm Entertainment (plaintiff) and Fantasy Sports (defendant), currently awaiting adjudication before the Delhi High Court throws open interesting questions on the copyrightability of nascent concepts like GUI and seeking protection

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India Accelerates in the Patent Race: But Is There a Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow?

/ By / Patent

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently published its annual World IP Indicators for the year 2023, detailing the different trends in the filing of IP applications and the subsequent grants by IP offices across different jurisdictions. In this short post, I’ll take a look at the India-specific figures in terms of patent filings, grants, and procedural data about the Indian Patent Office.  Countries with Highest Applications and Grants  But before we get to India, let’s take a look at

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Division Bench of Delhi High Court: IP Suits No Longer to Automatically Be Listed Before Commercial Courts

/ By / Others

[This post is co-authored by with Swaraj Paul Barooah. The authors would like to thank Aditya Gupta for his input. Views remain those of the authors’ alone.] In a major development bound to impact IP litigation in Delhi, a Division Bench (DB) of the Delhi High Court in Pankaj Ravjibhai Patel v. SSS Pharmachem Pvt. Ltd overruled the Single Judge’s key directions in Vishal Pipes Ltd. v. Bhavya Pipe Industry. To quickly recap, the Vishal Pipes judgement directed that all

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Delhi High Court Directs Maharaja to Pay a King’s Ransom in a Patent Infringement Suit  

/ By / Patent

[This post has been co-authored with Swaraj Paul Barooah]. Putting an end to a 24 year old patent infringement suit, the Delhi High Court has directed Maharaja Appliances Ltd. (the defendant) to pay upwards of 81 lakhs (INR 81,44,925 to be precise) as damages to Strix Ltd. The decision is important on three counts- First, it is perhaps one of the rare decisions where the court has computed notional damage on a “reasonable royalty basis”; Second, it is one of

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Draft Rules for Geographical Indications Published, Comments Invited by November 19

/ By / Geographical Indication

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) published 2023 Draft Amendments to the Geographical Indication Rules 2002, in the Gazette of India on October 20, inviting objections and suggestions from the relevant stakeholders. The draft also calls for comments from stakeholders within 30 days of its publication in the Gazette. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Controller General of Patent, Designs and Trademark (CGPDTM) announced it on their website on October 27, 2023 i.e.

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