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).

Malamud’s New TDM Venture May Not be Shielded by Section 52 of the Copyright Act

/ By / Copyright

Carl Malamud is at it again, riling up copyright owners and setting the stage for yet another lawsuit on a fascinating copyright issue. His latest effort to ‘liberate’ copyrighted information from scientific publishers is an enterprising venture, called the ‘JNU Data Depot’ which is based out of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and which was the subject of an excellent report by Priyanka Pulla in Nature. In the past, Malamud has provoked a firestorm of a debate in multiple jurisdictions, […]

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A Second Opposition Is Filed Against Janssen’s Patent Application For The Fumarate Salt Form of Bedaquiline

/ By / Patent

Multiple news outlets recently reported about a pre-grant patent opposition filed by two TB survivors, with support from MSF, against a patent application filed by Janssen for a salt form of its experimental TB drug bedaquiline. In a press note put out by MSF, it was claimed that this opposition “…is the first ever challenge against a TB drug patent in India”. This is a factually incorrect statement. The patent application under challenge, as per Sandeep Rathod’s analysis of the

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Supreme Court Saves Monsanto From Its Own “Incomprehensible” Legal Strategy

/ By / Patent

 In a judgment delivered today, the Supreme Court set aside the judgment of a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court which had revoked Monsanto’s patent and remanded the matter to the trial court. The issue of patent validity remains open and has not been decided by the court, as has been wrongly reported by the media. This litigation had kicked off in 2015 with Monsanto winning at the interim stage before the trial court followed by it losing grandly

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The Uttarakhand High Court’s Flight of Fancy While Interpreting the Biological Diversity Act

/ By / Biological Diversity

In a judgment delivered on December 21, 2018 a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court ruled that Divya Pharmacy, an Indian company that manufactures Ayurvedic medicines, will be subject to the benefit sharing obligations under the Biological Diversity Act. As a result, Divya Pharmacy will be required to make payments to the Uttarakhand State Biodiversity Board as per the rates laid down in the Access and Benefit Sharing Guidelines, 2014. Like many other Indian companies, Divya Pharmacy had taken the

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India’s Biodiversity Law Has Turned Out to Be a Nightmare for Scientists and Businesses – Parliament Should Repeal It

/ By / Biological Diversity

Earlier this year, a group of primarily Indian scientists stirred a pot a bit when they published a piece in Science on how the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) is a ‘cure’ that ‘kills’ because it has made biodiversity research quite complicated. The argument put forth by these scientists is that the CBD was inspired by unrealistic expectations regarding the commercial value of their biological resources and that the fences erected by national legislation (in pursuance of the CBD) have

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Bench Fixing Allegations Haunt Trademark Litigation Before the Delhi District Courts

/ By / Others

Less than a month ago, Livelaw and Bar & Bench reported on shocking allegations of bench fixing in a number of trademark infringement cases filed by KRBL Ltd. before the Delhi District Courts through the law firm K.G. Bansal & Co. The issue came to light when one of the litigants, Capital Ventures Pvt. Ltd. which had been sued by KRBL Ltd. for trademark infringement filed a contempt petition before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court. Ordinarily it

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The Government Moots Proposal to Amend Sports Broadcasting Law – Deadline for Comments is December 31, 2018

/ By / Copyright

Since the dawn of private sports broadcasting in the early nineties, private broadcasters and Prasar Bharti, which is the government owned broadcaster, have been constantly squabbling over the sharing of broadcast signals of international cricket matches featuring Team India which is officially owned by the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI).  Boria Majumdar has a very interesting account of these early battles in this article published in Open. These disputes often end up before the Supreme Court which in

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The Hindu Discovers That Indian Patients Have Not Been Informed of Bedaquiline’s Side-Effects

/ By / Drug Regulation

For the last 6 months, we’ve seen The Hindu reporting on bedaquiline, Janssen’s new experimental TB drug from various angles. There was the first set of reportage by Vidya Krishnan, which was mostly incorrect and possibly fake news. Then there was the opinion editorial by R. Prasad, a correspondent at the paper, who while noting the pending Phase III trials for the drug, recommended ramping up access to the drug. I’m not sure whether it is regular for health reporters

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The Ethics of Early Access to Experimental Drugs Like Bedaquiline That Have Not Yet Completed Phase III Trials

/ By / Drug Regulation

Following my criticism of an opinion piece in the Hindu by R. Prasad for his recommendation to ramp up access to bedaquiline without tackling the ethical issues regarding the flawed informed consent form for bedaquiline, he published a news report in yesterday’s Hindu on the ethics of denying early access to bedaquiline. Titled ‘Unethical to withhold bedaquiline while waiting for Phase III results’, he cites Dr. Karin Weyer at the World Health Organisation (WHO) who claims that it would be

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Delhi High Court Once Again Tackles the Issue of IP in Customer Lists – Delivers a Solid Judgment in Favour of Employees

/ By / Copyright, Trade Secret

An issue which keeps popping up in Indian litigation is whether it is possible for employers to restrain former employees from using customer lists after leaving employment. These legal actions are usually based in copyright law or contractual agreements that have clauses on confidentiality and restraints against post-employment competition. In a recent judgment by Justice Endlaw, in the case of Navigators Logistics Ltd v. Kashif Qureshi & Ors. the above issues are decided in favour of former employees in a

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