Author name: Prarthana Patnaik

Prarthana Patnaik is a final year law student at National Law University Odisha. Her main interests lie in copyright, open access and technology laws. She can be reached for queries and topic suggestions at [email protected].

SpicyIP Weekly Review (July 22-29)

/ By / Others

Thematic Highlight Prof. Basheer wrote another post on the Novartis AG v. Union of India decision in continuation to his earlier post on a Chinese blockbuster inspired by the Novartis decision. In the first half of his post, he focuses on the Court’s strict construction of the term ‘efficacy’ under Section 3(d) and how Novartis was unable to prove the same in its anti-cancer drug Glivec. He then recounts several flaws in the Court’s reasoning and the decision-making process. He then analyses …

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The New Age of IP Mediation in India

/ By / Others

Time for the Argumentative Indian to step down? They say that time is money, but clearly no one seems to adhere to this adage in the Courts of law in India. It’s no news that shortage of judges, inefficient administration, delaying tactics adopted by lawyers and several other factors lead to massive pendency of cases in Indian Courts. About Delays in Indian Patent Examination and Litigation IPR disputes meet the same fate. In particular, delays in patent litigation are quite …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (July 8-15)

/ By / Others

It’s been an interesting week at SpicyIP! Thematic Highlight The second guest post by Prof. (Dr.) N.S. Gopalakrishnan forms the thematic highlight of this week. In continuation to his first post, Prof. Gopalakrishnan states that there has been no report of an individual registering a new variety under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Act, 2001 till date. He then proceeds to describe how certain provisions and rules under the Act create confusion with regard to notification of …

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The Himachal Pradesh High Court Revokes Patent Grant Invoking Section 3(p)

/ By / Patent, Traditional Knowledge

Earlier (quite a few years ago!), Prashant had reported a 2008 order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, wherein the Court had examined the validity of the Patent No. 195917, a patent granted to the plaintiffs for a “device used for manually hauling agricultural produce”, on the basis of its alleged similarities to a traditional handicraft called “kilta” (an-all-purpose bamboo basket used to carry any type of load, supported by a rope and tied to the forehead). In this case, …

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Australia’s Big Win at the WTO: Plain Packaging of Tobacco Likely to Pick Up!

/ By / Geographical Indication, Trademark

In 2012, Australia was the first country to adopt plain packaging measures for tobacco products. Several countries such as France, Ireland, UK etc. followed suit and other countries such as India have initiated legislative processes for introduction of such measures. Plain packaging laws and measures generally impose requirements of removal of logos, minimal branding and colouring, and warning signs. These laws have attracted a lot of debate in recent times since opponents of these laws (mainly tobacco producers) claim that …

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India Breaks the Patents-Customs Linkage a Bit!

/ By / Overlaps in IP, Patent

The IP-customs linkage has always been a contentious one. Particularly so in the case of patents, an area of law which is difficult enough to decipher for trained judges, much less customs officials (more often than not generalist bureaucrats appointed by the Government of India). Given this problematic linkage, it is heartening to note that vide a recent notification dated 22nd June, 2018, issued by the Central Government, the linkage between patents and customs has effectively been broken (a bit). …

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Article 13 of the Controversial EU Copyright Directive

/ By / Copyright, Overlaps in IP

The Internet as you know and love may change. The vote’s out! On 20th June, 2018, the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee (JURI) voted to approve amendments to Articles 11 and 13 of the EU Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market. These Articles have drawn the ire of many since they require internet platforms to monitor copyrighted material uploaded on their platforms and to pay fees to news companies before linking their content. In this post, I’ll be solely …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (June 18-24)

/ By / Others

This week, we had a post by Prashant, which forms the latest update on the ongoing debate about the Bedaquiline issue. (Previous SpicyIP posts on this issue by Prashant and Balaji can be accessed here.). In his latest post, Prashant responded to Anand Grover’s take on his views and disagreed with him on multiple aspects. He countered Grover’s argument on increasing access to bedaquiline by questioning the decision of Indian authorities to approve this drug when Phase III trials are …

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Patenting Blockchain Services in USA and India

/ By / Innovation, Patent

Blockchain, initially introduced as a part of the Bitcoin currency, has now proven to be the new game-changer technology in several industries, with big corporations using it for various customer-friendly services such as cross-border payment systems, electronic shipping platforms, portable health records etc. Blockchains act as databases that store records for every transaction conducted and which are distributed, indestructible, decentralized, peer-to-peer and independently verifiable in nature. Controversies arise, however, when companies seek to patent their blockchain based services. Blockchain patents …

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