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).

Tea Board ‘regrets’ earlier RTI reply; discloses legal expenses on registering and defending its Intellectual Property

/ By / Others

Continuing from my earlier post on how the Tea Board & APEDA were making an absolute mockery of the Right to Information Act, 2005, I’m glad to report that the Tea Board has overruled its earlier decision and agreed to disclose its expenses. The Appellate Officer for implementation of the RTI Act, 2005 agreed with my argument that legal expenses of the Board could not be considered confidential and ordered the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) to immediately disclose the […]

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The glory of being a copyright lawyer, by the name of Ameet Datta

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Mr. Ameet Dutta Around two weeks ago, on the 30th of May, 2012 I witnessed an incredible sight at the auditorium on the ISKCON premises at Juhu, Mumbai. An auditorium filled with the leading lights of the musical community from Bollywood, led by Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Vishal Bhaaradwaj, Anandji, Shreya Ghosal, Shan, Prasoon Joshi etc. were on their feet to deliver a thundering, heartfelt ovation for a copyright lawyer who had advised Javed Akhtar through the entire process of lobbying

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Delhi Court issues summons to Colgate top brass and TM Registrar in a criminal case filed by Anchor

/ By / Trademark

(Co-authored with Sai Vinod Nayani) In an order dated 2nd of April, 2012, a Metropolitan Magistrate at New Delhi, acting on a criminal complaint filed by Anchor Health & Beauty Care Pvt. Ltd., has summoned before her several top officials of Colgate-Palmolive, including its global CEO Mr. Ian Cook, along with Mr. G. L. Verma, a Registrar at the Trade Marks Registry. The allegations against Colgate and the Registrar of Trade Marks relate to forgery of a document, making a

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From the Archives: The lobbying briefs of the IDMA, IPA, OPPI & ICPA for the Patent (Amendment) Acts of 1999 & 2002

/ By / Patent

Image from here. Continuing from my earlier post on the archives from the DIPP, I would also like to share with our readers some of the policy briefs submitted by various industry bodies, that we managed to extract from the DIPP’s files on the Patent (Amendment) Act, 1999 & Patent (Amendment) Act, 2002.  I have scanned and made available on the internet the following documents:  (i) IDMA: The Indian Drug Manufacturer’s Association (IDMA), which is one of the oldest and

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From the archives: A brief glance at the govt. files on the Patent (Amendment) Acts of 1999 & 2002

/ By / Patent

Image from here Earlier this year, I had gone to the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Industry & Commerce, along with Sumathi, hoping to collect some information under the RTI Act from the official files on the Patent (Amendment) Act, 1999 & 2002. It was obviously impossible to photocopy all the files, so we did the next best thing and picked out what we thought were the most interesting papers. In particular we focussed on the

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The need to sharpen the legal skills of the IPO

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Image from here. Continuing from Rajiv’s earlier post, on the manner in which some of the assistant patent controllers are passing summary orders without adequate reasoning, I would like to extend the discussion to some of the orders passed in RTI matters especially the order of the G.I. Registry rejecting Sumathi’s appeal against denial of information relating to the ‘basmati’ proceedings.  To briefly recap the facts of the case, the CPIO had denied all papers pertaining to the ‘opposition’ proceedings

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Guest Post: Rosetta Stone Ltd. v. Google Inc.

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Sourav Dan, a 4th year student at KIIT law school has sent us this interesting post on the similarities between the decisions of an Indian court and American Court in holding Google liable for contributory infringement in cases where its ‘Adwords’ keywords suggestion tool, ‘suggests’ arbitrary or fanciful trademarks.  Helping hands of BharatMatrimony.com decision in changing the fate of Google Adwords in Rosetta Stone Ltd. v. Google Inc.  By Sourav Dan This post analyzes the judgment of the US Court

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Making a mockery of the RTI Act

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Originally, this post was supposed to be one on the procurement of legal services by the Central Government and other statutory bodies. The reason for this being that the Government has recently introduced in Parliament, for the first time, a Public Procurement Bill, 2012 which will have a major impact on the manner in which the Central Government procures goods and services with public money. This would include the legal services of IP lawyers. Prior to this Bill, all Central

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GI Registry dragging its feet on petitions filed against ‘Darjeeling Tea’ & ‘Tirupati Laddu’

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It has been more than a year since rectifications petitions have been filed against the Geographical Indication tags for ‘Darjeeling Tea’ and ‘Tirupati Laddu’. Both petitions were filed in the year 2010 and both petitioners are yet to be granted a date of hearing despite repeated reminders to the G.I. Registry.  While the petition against ‘Darjeeling Tea’ has been filed by Rajeev Saraf who is represented by Advocate Vinay Kumar Jain, the petition against the ‘Tirupati Laddu’ G.I. has been

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Guest Post: Reputation without use

/ By / Trademark

The recent decision of the IPAB over the FT trademark, which Shan had analyzed about over here, is probably one of the most important judgements in the recent past. The distinction drawn by the IPAB between ‘use’ and ‘reputation’ will probably have an effect on several similar cases pending before different forums.  Arun Mohan, an IP lawyer practising before the Madras High Court has sent us this guest post providing a different perspective on the matter.  I also invite other

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