Author name: Prashant Reddy

T. Prashant Reddy graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, with a B.A.LLB (Hons.) degree in 2008. He later graduated with a LLM degree (Law, Science & Technology) from the Stanford Law School in 2013. Prashant has worked with law firms in Delhi and in academia in India and Singapore. He is also co-author of the book Create, Copy, Disrupt: India's Intellectual Property Dilemmas (OUP).

Copyright in “Standards”: Taking a look at the PIL by Malamud, Sinha & Kodali against BIS

/ By / Copyright

The issues of copyrights in standards is back in the limelight after a recent judgment of a Federal Court in the US, ruling against Public Resources in a lawsuit filed against it by standards bodies like the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), etc. Techdirt provides a nice summary and analysis of the judgment. The works at dispute in this case were “standards” which were developed by private bodies but then made compulsory […]

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The Press Release Journalism Around the GIPC IP Index

/ By / Copyright, Patent

It is that time of the year once again – the Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) has released its international IP Index to help measure the global IP environment. As is usually the case with the GIPC index, India is located close to the bottom of the 40-45 countries that are considered for the index. This year the GIPC has placed India at 43rd out of a list of 45 countries. In the past, Swaraj and Kartik have questioned the

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Attention musicians & songwriters: IPRS to hold Extra-ordinary General Meeting on February 9, 2017 to replace its Articles

/ By / Copyright

At long last, the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) will be holding an extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) on February 9, 2017 to begin the process of overhauling its governing regulations. This has been long overdue since IPRS has been on the wrong end of the law for a long time as we explain here and here. The notice laying down the agenda for the meeting can be accessed on the IPRS website over here. The first item on the agenda

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Poorly Drafted Regulatory Laws are Becoming the New Barrier for Indians to Access More Affordable Biotech Products

/ By / Competition Law, Drug Regulation

In highly regulated industries like pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, where all market players are required to prove the safety and efficacy of their products to government regulators, the lack of an efficient regulatory mechanism can act as a substantial hurdle to competition and greater accessibility. In such cases, poor regulation provides IP owners a window to further delay competition even after their patent rights expire. To facilitate better competition in these sectors, it is necessary for governments to create new regulatory

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Our new book on the history & politics of Indian IP & a free e-book on Indian copyright legislation and parliamentary debates

/ By / Others

I’m happy to announce to our readers that the Oxford University Press has recently published a book on Indian IP that I have co-authored with Sumathi Chandrashekharan, who used to blog with us on SpicyIP and who is now with the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The book is titled Create, Copy Disrupt: India’s Intellectual Property Dilemmas and attempts to narrate the history and the politics surrounding India’s intellectual property policies since it declared independence from the British in 1947.

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Delhi High Court dismisses trademark infringement lawsuits by Pepsico & Rasna for lack of jurisdiction

/ By / Trademark

The Supreme Court’s decision in IPRS v. Sanjay Dalia continues to torment IP owners who have been abusing the law to create jurisdiction before the Delhi High Court. The victims this time are Pepsico and the owners of the Rasna trademark. In two different judgments, Justice R. K. Gauba has rejected lawsuits filed by both these trademark owners under Section 134 which is the special jurisdictional clause of the Trade Marks Act, 1999. This clause, like Section 62 of the

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Rice & IP: The ongoing Basmati imbroglio, the ‘Green Rice’ mystery & the IR8 celebrations

/ By / Biological Diversity, Geographical Indication, Plant Variety Protection, Traditional Knowledge

Over the last year with the Monsanto-Nuziveedu dispute, India has witnessed one of its biggest IP disputes in the agricultural sector. The Basmati GI dispute also has huge implication but as I’m reminded, often, by several people, geographical indications (GI) do not qualify as IP. These disputes aside, we’ve also come across two other very interesting cases of green rice and IR8 celebrations. Basmati rice – When did geography become an issue? As we’ve written earlier on SpicyIP, there is

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The Times of India gives a spin to a recent SC order on copyrightability of edited judgments

/ By / Copyright

Earlier this week, the Times of India published a news report, by its legal correspondent Dhananjay Mahapatra regarding an appeal by Reeds Elseiver that was dismissed by the Supreme Court on November 23, 2016. Titled ‘No copyright over our judgments: SC’, the following are the opening paragraphs of Mahapatra’s report: For long, a couple of firms had a virtual monopoly over printing judgments of the Supreme Court in book format and selling it to advocates, institutions and others. So much

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What Effect will Trump’s Victory Have on Indian IP law and Policy?

/ By / Patent

The presidential elections in the United States of America have now concluded with Republican Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump winning a closely contested election. Trump’s election campaign has been unprecedented in the history of the United States. Despite being accused of sexual assault, tax evasion, fraud, draft dodging, bigotry, mocking the disabled and a list of other political sins that were considered unpardonable, Trump still managed to defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in a close contest. One of the reasons

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IPA Alleges that New Rule Change will Bring in a Data Exclusivity Regime – Here’s Why I Think it Does no Such Thing

/ By / Data Exclusivity, Drug Regulation, Patent

In a report published yesterday in the Bombay edition of the Times of India it has been alleged that the government is proposing a rule change to the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 to introduce:  “a form of ‘data exclusivity’, a provision which will potentially give protection to Big Pharma, thereby delaying generic competition and hence impacting access and affordability of drugs.” The source of this information as per the news report is D.G. Shah, the spokesperson of the Indian Pharmaceutical

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