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).

IPAB releases Annual Report on World IP day

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In a welcome first, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board has published its Annual Report on its website on April 26th which is recognized as World IP day. It also gives us an important wrap-up of the milestones in the last year. I don’t think the IPAB has ever come out with such a report in the past. The report can be accessed over here. (Image: Logo of the IPAB)  Some of the important milestones, as extracted from the report, are as follows:  […]

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Guest Post: The story behind Ranbaxy’s new drug

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Pursuant to my last post on Ranbaxy’s new anti-malarial drug, I received a few comments indicating a certain level of confusion about the exact nature of Ranbaxy’s invention. I therefore requested Akshat Rathi, a doctoral student in chemistry at the University of Oxford, to write us a guest post tracing the evolution and nature of Ranbaxy’s invention. Akshat also writes at the Allotrope, a blog focussed on the impact of science on society.  The story behind Ranbaxy’s new drug  By, 

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Ranbaxy’s new anti-malarial drug: A first for India?

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The last few days have witnessed at least a dozen news reports on the launch of Ranbaxy’s new anti-malarial drug – Synriam. Several of the news reports such as the one over here and here give the impression that this drug launch is the first of its kind in India. The Business Line report in particular claims that Ranbaxy has spent invested $30 million to develop this drug. A part of this claim can be traced to Ranbaxy’s press-release which

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Statutory licensing for radio stations to be dropped from Copyright Amendment Bill, 2010?

/ By / Copyright

The Times of India & the Economic Times have both reported that radio stations are opposed to any move by the HRD Ministry to do away with the proposed ‘statutory licensing’ provision in the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010. It is not even clear whether the Ministry has actually proposed such a move. Image from here. As per Section 31 of the Copyright Act, 1957 a compulsory licence for broadcast could be issued by the Copyright Board only if the works

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Spicy IP Tidbit: ‘Bold strategies for Indian Science’ by Prof. Gautam Desiraju

/ By / Innovation

One of the recent issues of the international weekly journal of science, Nature, carried an interesting and witty article on the state of Indian science. The article titled ‘Bold strategies for Indian Science’ by Gautam Desiraju, a Professor of Chemistry, at the prestigious Indian Institute for Science (IISc.), Bangalore. The article can be read over here. (Image from here) In this article, Prof. Desiraju laments at the slow progress of Indian science; on how India has not produced a single

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The review petition: Will Dr. Kardam stop the IPO from slipping back into the dark ages?

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  Continuing from our last post on the latest RTI fiasco before the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), we have now prepared a ‘review’ petition which we will mail to the IPO by tomorrow. The ball is now in Dr. Kardam’s court – if he accepts the contentions in the review petition he will have to necessarily accept that the RTI Act, 2005 overrules the existing procedures under various IP laws to request information from different IP offices. If he rejects

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A RTI googly from Dr. Kardam

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In a googly under the RTI Act, Dr. Kardam, Deputy Controller of Patents & Designs and also the Appellate Authority under the Right to Information Act, 2005, at the Intellectual Property Office, has effectively killed the application of the RTI, 2005 to information held by the Patent Office, Trade Mark Registry & Geographical Indications (G.I.) Registry. Image from here. In a recent decision, available over here, Dr. Kardam has ruled that the RTI Act, 2005 will not apply in those

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The need for an‘independent’ review of the TKDL project

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I would like to conclude the last few posts on the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), with a call for an independent review of the entire project. In specific, the review should examine the TKDL on the following points:  (i) Copyright infringement: In of my earlier posts, I had raised the issue of whether TKDL was compliant with the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. The ‘copyright issue’ strikes at the very heart of TKDL for the very same reason that Google

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Guest Post – TKDL: A success- Really?

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Mahima Rathi, who has recently guest blogged for us, over here, has sent us this very interesting case study regarding the use of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) before the European Patent Office. TKDL: A success – Really? by, Mahima Rathi Much has been said about the success of TKDL in preventing cases of misappropriation of Traditional Knowledge related to Genetic Resources (TKGRs). In fact, the TKDL website refers to several cases of withdrawals, amendments and rejection of patent

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Guest Post: Unveiling the Link: CSIR and Indian Intellectual Property Office

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I recently invited Mahima Rathi, a fourth year student at the National Law University, Jodhpur to write a guest post for us on her research into the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). Mahima had earlier left several insightful comments on the previous TKDL posts and I think it is safe to conclude that given the depth of her research into the topic she can easily write a book on the TKDL.  Mahima’s post, below, explains how although CSIR and the

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