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).

Is the suit again the Registrar of Copyright maintainable under the law?

/ By / Copyright

Continuing from my earlier post today, available over here, I would like to briefly examine whether the lawsuit in question is even maintainable under the law as it stands.  To briefly recap, since August, 2012 there have been three rounds of litigation wherein music labels have sought judicial intervention to restrain the Registrar of Copyrights from carrying on an inquiry into the state of affairs at IPRS. They have managed to succeed in large measure by filing a civil suit […]

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Déjà vu for Akhtar – nightmare before Barasat Courts plays out once again – with a different ending?

/ By / Copyright

The infamous dispute between music labels and authors/composers before the Civil Judge at Barasat, which we had blogged about over here and here, has reignited once again.  I do not have access to most of the information in this case but from I understand, Javed Akhtar filed a complaint on 9th of August, 2012 with the Registrar of Copyrights regarding the state of affairs at IPRS. Thereafter the Registrar of Copyrights issued a show-cause notice to IPRS and I’m speculating

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IPAB revokes several claims of yet another patent belonging to Dr. Wobben

/ By / Uncategorized

Image from here In a decision dated 23rd January, 2013; a bench of the IPAB, consisting of Justice Prabha Sridevan and D.P.S. Parmar, revoked 18 of the 21 claims of Patent No. 198648 granted to Dr. Alloy Wobben for “An inverter for producing an alternating or three phase current from a DC voltage”. The IPAB has ordered Dr. Wobben to amend even the 3 remaining claims, to narrow them down. The entire order of the IPAB can be accessed over

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The ‘Emcure model’ of Foreign Investment and Joint-Ventures

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Over the last few years, we’ve seen an increasing amount of co-operation between Big PhRMA companies and Indian generics, mostly in the form of acquisitions such as the Abbot-Piramal deal or the Ranbaxy-Diachi deal. The aim of these deals, for innovator companies, was to build up capacities in the generics sector to cater to the growing market for generic medicines. The growing investment led to a clamour for a ban on 100% foreign direct investment in generic pharmaceutical companies. Apart

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Patent Office makes public the feedback to the Draft Guidelines for Examination of Biotechnology Patents

/ By / Patent

Image of E.Coli Bacilli from here In a welcome development, the Controller General has made public the feedback that his office received in response to his call for comments on the Draft Guidelines for Examination of Biotechnology Patents. The feedback can be accessed over here on the website of the IPO. Our earlier post on the topic can be accessed over here.  Most of the replies were from mainly law firms, specializing in patent prosecution. Responses from these law firms

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Two years of continuing disappointment with the Madras High Court

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Image from here It has been exactly two years since the Madras High Court admitted two PILs challenging the constitutionality of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) and the Copyright Board; the first filed by Shamnad and the second by the South Indian Music Companies Association (SIMCA).  While the petition against the Copyright Board was rendered infructuous when Parliament amended the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 last year, the petition challenging the constitutionality of the IPAB is very much

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The political economy of the current round of compulsory licensing in India

/ By / Uncategorized

Yusuf Hamied (Image from here) The present round of compulsory licencing which has been kick-started by the DIPP, is widely seen as the fruits of a sustained lobbying effort by the generic pharmaceutical lobby. While the media is yet to identify, the ‘masterminds’ behind the lobbying, the final result of the lobbying effort is keeping in line with the demands of Yusuf Hamied, the head of Cipla. (For our previous posts on these issues please click hereand here) Ever since,

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Mark Lynas, former anti-GM food activist embraces GM foods at Oxford Conference

/ By / Others

Image from here In a surprising turn of events, Mark Lynas, a former campaigner against genetically modified foods has completely reversed his views on the topic at a conference in Oxford and has now given genetically modified food his stamp of approval. Earlier in his career, Mark Lynas, reportedly played a key role in the anti-GM campaign in both Europe and India, where GM food remains banned due to poor public confidence in the safety of the food. Lynas appears

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Rebutting ad hominem Twitter attacks

/ By / Copyright

I was aware that I would receive some amount of criticism for my last post on the Swartz suicide given that I am criticized for pretty much anything that I write these days but I was surprised to hear some vicious criticism from some unexpected sources, namely Nandita Saika, a media and tech lawyer who maintains an interesting blog on Indian copyright law which you can access over here, in case you haven’t yet already heard of it.  On her

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IP ideologies and the Swartz suicide

/ By / Copyright

Image from here I had never heard about Aaron Swartz until Swaraj’s post below about his life and suicide. The internet is now abuzz with news reports about Swartz’s suicide, his ‘heroism’ and ‘bullying’ by the prosecutors of the U.S. Government. While not everybody is saying it in so many words, the overwhelming trend appears to blame the federal government prosecution of Swartz for his suicide. This, despite the fact there is no conclusive proof of such a link. Swartz

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