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).

Kurian’s parting gift to the Trade Marks office – a CBI probe

/ By / Trademark

Unnikrishnan of the Mint has recently reported that the outgoing Controller General of India’s IP offices – Mr. P.H. Kurian, has requested the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption against certain officials of the trademark registry. Mr. Kurian has been quoted as stating that there was some information on how certain officials at the trade marks registry had been offering to speed-track certain files in return for illegal gratification. A public notice […]

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Should High Courts continue to exercise writ jurisdiction over the IPAB?

/ By / Uncategorized

As discussed in an earlier post, one of the peculiarities of the Indian tribunal system is that although it was setup to reduce the workload of cases pending at the High Courts, almost every order of these tribunals is appealed to High Court since the Supreme Court has held in the Chandra Kumar case that the writ jurisdiction of the High Courts is a part of the ‘basic structure’ of the constitution and hence cannot be barred by the Parliament.

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IPRS continues to sue with impunity before Delhi High Court

/ By / Uncategorized

Despite the raging controversy and official investigation into the happenings at the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), its management has been pushing ahead, with mixed success, several suits of copyright infringement before the Delhi High Court against entities across the country. Starting in January this year, when the Registrar of Copyrights officially initiated an inquiry against IPRS, the copyright society has filed as many as six suits for copyright infringement against alleged infringers ranging from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association

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Do the Bombay & Delhi HCs violate SC guidelines while reviewing IPAB decisions?

/ By / Uncategorized

One of the peculiarities of the tribunalization process in the Indian legal setup is that all decisions of the tribunals can be reviewed by High Courts despite the fact that tribunals were setup in order to reduce the pendency of cases before High Courts. In all fairness to Parliament it had stated in some of the parents statutes of these tribunals that the jurisdiction of the High Courts would be excluded. However when the constitutionality of these legislations were challenged

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Chairman of Raymond Industries under criminal investigation for patent infringement!

/ By / Patent

One of our regular readers, Irfan Modi, has brought to our attention this news report in the Mumbai Mirror regarding the criminal investigation of Raymond Industries and its Chairperson for alleged infringement of certain patent rights held by Mr. Bharat Bhogilal Patel. We had earlier blogged about Bharat Bhogilal Patel’s patents over here. As per the news that we had with us at that time, Mr. Patel was trying to replicate the Ramkumar saga by enforcing two of his patents

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‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ through Litigation – Sergi Transformers v. CTR Manufacturing Industries

/ By / Uncategorized

A recent judgment on the 6th of June, 2011 by the Bombay High Court (available over here and here), in the case of Sergi Transformers v. CTR Manufacturing Industries has finally concluded a series of appeals, counter-appeals plaguing this patent infringement suit at a stage when the Court had not even framed the issues. It is simply terrifying to note that the system allows for so many appeals and revisions at the stage of pleadings itself. This is the perfect

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Guest Post on the Tasini et. al. lawsuit against Huffington Post

/ By / Copyright

Sai Vinod Nayani, a fourth year student of NUJS has sent us this incsive post on the lawsuit filed by Tasini et. al. against the Huffington post. HUFFERS CRISIS! Claim for Equitable Compensation for Enriching the HuffPost by Sai Vinod Nayani This past April, a class action suit was instituted against Ariana Huffington and the Huffington Post by one of their blogger and labour activist, Jonathan Tasini, demanding a share in the $315 million sale of the latter to AOL

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Reforming the patents & trademarks adjudication mechanism in India – Why does the Indian IP Bar continue to sleep?

/ By / Patent

One of the major pitfalls of the current patents & trademarks adjudication mechanism in India is the multiplicity of forums which can revoke both patents and trademarks. Image from here. The Patents Act, 1970 currently provides for three forums before which a patent can be revoked. Under Section 25(2) the Patent Office can revoke a patent under a post-grant opposition. Under Section 64 both the High Court and the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) can revoke patents during the course

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P.H. Kurian – the Patent Office’s ‘Knight in Shining Armour’ – resigns as the Controller General

/ By / Uncategorized

As most of you may have already heard, the Controller General of Patents, Trademarks & Designs Mr. P.H. Kurian has resigned from his post despite completing only half of his five year term. The new Congress led State Government at Kerala has requested him to join it as the Principal Secretary – an extremely important post in any State Government. This comes as no surprise given the acute shortage of honest AND efficient bureaucrats in this country. Image of Mr.

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Should the Registrar of Copyrights be investigating even PPL?

/ By / Copyright

One of the recurring themes of the last 5 posts on the IPRS controversy is the degree to which PPL seems to have taken over the functions of IPRS. Most pertinently the IPRS management has admitted to signing atleast one MoU with PPL authorizing the latter to commission an agent to issue ‘single window’ licences to T.V. channels. Secondly PPL’s own Annual Reports have claimed that it has been collecting ringtone royalties on behalf of IPRS. The question is whether

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