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).

Guest Post by Feroz Ali: Making Patents Work

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It gives me great pleasure to bring our readers a thought provoking piece by one of India’s legal IP practitioners’ – Feroz Ali Khader. Feroz Ali is an advocate practising at the Madras High Court and the founder of Ali Associates, a law firm which specialises in law and technology practice. He is the author of India’s first legal work on patent laws and pharmaceuticals titled “The Law of Patents – With a Special Focus on Pharmaceuticals in India”, published […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Patent Office upgrades the Indian Patent Information Retrieval System (IPIRS) to provide for ‘application status’

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SpicyIP is thrilled to inform its readers that the Indian Patent Office has comprehensively revamped its ‘Indian Patent Information Retrieval System’ (IPIRS) to not only make it more asthetically pleasing to the user but also provide an extremely useful search feature on the ‘application status’ of pending applications. As our readers may know SpicyIP has always been an ardent advocate of an effective digital patent database since such a database would go a long way in increasing transparency and strengthening

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Preventive Detention in ‘God’s own Country’ for ‘Copyright & Digital Pirates’

/ By / Copyright

Over the last several months we’ve blogged about several draconian preventive detention legislations aimed at combating video piracy and how these legislations may be unconstitutional. Photo: Munnar, Kerala – photo credit: Bimal KC. As of now we have confirmed news that the states of Tamil Nadu and Maharasthra have already amended their Goonda Acts to include copyright infringement of videos in the list of offences that could lead to preventive detention of the suspects (not convicts). An attempt to introduce

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A Comment on the Vires of ‘The Protection, Conservation and Effective Management of Traditional Knowledge relating to Biological Diversity Rules, 2009

/ By / Biological Diversity

Earlier this year the National Biological Authority, had invited comments on – The Protection, Conservation and Effective Management of Traditional Knowledge relating to Biological Diversity Rules, 2009 (TK Rules, 2009). The rules have been drafted by the NBA under Section 36(5) & 62 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Image: Preamble to the Constitution of India – From here.Section 36(5) is an interesting provision which allows the Central Government to facilitate the registration of traditional knowledge in relation to biological

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The BT Brinjal fiasco: Time to pass the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill?

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The last few weeks have been witness to several very vocal, sometime violent, protests against the introduction of BT Brinjal into the Indian market. The Ministry of Environment under the stewardship of Jairam Ramesh has attempted to convince the Indian people that this latest innovation has been tested adequately as per the law of the country and that the same were safe both for the environment and for human consumption. The fiasco at the public hearings however is clearly indicative

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Bombay High Court declines to hear interim CL applications; shows the Appellant the way to the Copyright Board

/ By / Copyright

In a concise 28 page Order dated 22nd January, 2010, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of Music Choice India Pvt. Ltd. v. Phonographic Performance Ltd. has turned down the appeal of the appellant radio station to grant interim relief until such time that the Copyright Board heard and decided it Compulsory Licensing (CL) application. The radio station Appellant had filed a CL application with the Copyright Board back in 2007 after several rounds of

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The National Biodiversity Authority invites comments on draft amendments

/ By / Biological Diversity

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), the statutory authority, under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has put out a delightfully public notice requesting public participation and comments on the following: (i)International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing;(ii)Evolving sui generis system for the protection of Traditional Knowledge; &(iii)Amendments to the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules, 2004. The public notice along with the relevant reference material can be accessed here. I use the words ‘delightfully public notice’ because in sharp

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SpicyIP Tidbit: The Woes of the Grassroot Innovator in the Agricultural Sector

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The Indian public discourse over innovation and intellectual property laws has often ignored the issues arising in the agricultural sector – a sector which affects more than 50% of the Indian population. Luckily for us Hindu’s award winning correspondent – M.J.Prabhu carries a weekly column – Farmer’s Notebook – which does cover grassroot level innovation affecting farmers. In fact his coverage has been so good that he’s been given an award for it by the National Innovation Foundation. Picture from

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SpicyIP Tidbit: The Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008

/ By / Innovation

In 2008 the then Minister for Science and Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal had introduced in Parliament the Science and Engineering Research Board Bill, 2008. The Bill as passed by both Houses of Parliament in December, 2008 aimed at constituting an autonomous body, the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).Photo Credit: Bill Strong, Image can be accessed here.The ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons‘ appended to the Bill introduces the Bill as an attempt “to create an autonomous Board with necessary administrative

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Patent Office to make updated patent specifications available under Rule 27

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The Controller General of Patents – P.H.Kurian – has issued an Office Circular today stating that the latest updated patent specifications will be available, under Rule 27 of the Patent Rules, for inspection and that copies of the same will be provided to the public. Rule 27 of the Patent Rules which provides for the ‘Inspection of published applications’ states the following: “After the date of publication of the application under Section 11A, the application together with the complete specification

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