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).

Both Hindi cinema and theatre are accused of copyright infringement by relatives of dead authors

/ By / Copyright

The latest Bollywood blockbuster – Golmaal Returns – has been accused of infringing the copyright of a 1973 Hindi movie – Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar. The allegations have been raised by the widow of the director-producer Rajendra Bhatia. She has allegedly filed a complaint against the producers Golmaal Returns with the Indian Motions Pictures Producer’s Association. The director of Golmaal Returns has rubbished the claims and has pointed out to his track record of securing all the necessary permissions for […]

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SpicyIP Tidbits: ‘Maaza’ dispute ends up in the Delhi High Court

/ By / Trademark

The dispute between Bisleri and Coca-Cola over the ‘Maaza’ trademark has finally landed itself in the Delhi High Court. The ET reports that The Coca-Cola Company secured in its favour “an interim injunction restraining Bisleri International from using the Maaza trademark in India. The matter is to come up for further hearing on March 2, 2009.”  Sumathi and I had  covered the ‘Maaza’ dispute in two earlier posts which you can read over here and here. Initially  in the month

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Revisiting the CSE-Mint copyright controversy

/ By / Copyright

In my last post on the CSE-Mint controversy, I had confidently claimed, that the answer to whether CSE could claim a ‘fair-dealing’ defense, was a ‘resounding no’. However a fine piece of legal analysis from the OriginalFake blog has forced me to recant the ‘resounding no’ and instead replace it with a timid ‘maybe’.  OriginalFake is a blog founded by Mr. Prashant Iyengar of the Alternative Law Forum and it deals with the “politics of IP, Technology and Culture in India”. 

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100,000 Hits and Counting….

/ By / Uncategorized

I’m happy to inform our readers that earlier this week SpicyIP notched up over 100,000 hits since September, 2007. Our subscriber base has also increased to over 850 members. Although its not as significant as Obama winning the U.S. Presidency, I must say that these are heartening numbers especially for a blog dedicated to only Indian IP laws. Given that the popularity of blogs such as SpicyIP is dependant on word-of-mouth reviews, I would like to thank our dedicated readers

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The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is accused of Copyright Infringement by the Mint’s Editor

/ By / Copyright

Indian cyberspace, over the last week, has been witness to a slowly unfolding copyright battle between two rather unlikely entities – The Centre for Science & Enviroment (CSE), a leading NGO & the Mint a leading business daily which has as one of its partners – The Wall Street Journal. The Mint has alleged that the Centre for Science & Environment has been reproducing without permission a large number of copyright protected articles belonging to the Mint (and its majority

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Roche implements ‘mass serialization’ anti-counterfeiting technology

/ By / Uncategorized

Allegations of counterfeit drugs have haunted the Indian pharmaceutical industry for quite a few years now. You can never be sure whether the tablet actually has an API or just white chalk. An E.U. Report last year pointed out that India was the largest source for the 2.7 million counterfeit drugs that were seized at the E.U. borders in 2006. For its part the WHO claims that India is the source of 35% of all counterfeit drugs in the world

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Whats in a proprietary drug name? Apparently quite a lot!

/ By / Drug Regulation, Trademark

The Times, recently, carried an interesting article on ‘How drug companies try to get into your head?’ The article points out how drug companies come up with fancy sounding names which make no reference to the generic names of the drug and how these proprietary names are used by the media during the course of the reporting, thereby unwittingly advertising the proprietary name to the general public and creating an impression that these branded drugs are much more effective than

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SpicyIP Tidbit: The Supreme Court appoints Dr. Chakraborty as the technical member on the IPAB panel hearing the Glivec appeal

/ By / Uncategorized

The Supreme Court in a recent order, dated the 1st of October, appointed Dr P.C. Chakraborty,deputy controller general of patents in the Kolkata office, as a technical member on the IPAB Panel hearing the Glivec appeal. Readers may remember that close to a month ago SpicyIP had blogged on how the Supreme Court was leaning towards the inclusion of a technical member on the IPAB panel. Additionally the Court has also ordered the IPAB to begin hearing the appeal on

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Hari Puttar: Reviewing the movie and the judgment

/ By / Trademark

The movie reviews of ‘Hari Puttar’ are still flowing in and trust me they aren’t very flattering towards the movie. CNN-IBN’s Masand apparently couldn’t even sit through the first half because it was that bad. Another review from buzz18.com ran the title of the review as ‘Hari Puttar is such crap’.  The Indian Express was of the opinion that the “script which doesn’t know the meaning of sense, and so full of holes that several large-size trucks can drive right through.”

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SpicyIP Tidbit: ‘Maaza’ trademark under dispute

/ By / Trademark

Media reports in the last week seem to suggest that a major trademark battle is brewing between Bisleri and Coca-Cola over the use of the ‘Maaza’ trademark. ‘Maaza’ is one of India’s most popular mango based non-carbonated soft drinks. It competes with two other popular mango drinks – ‘Frooti’ & ‘Slice’ which is owned by Pepsi. Originally ‘Maaza’ was owned by the Chauhan family which at that time also owned other famous trademarks like Thums-Up, Rim-Zim, Goldspot, Limca and Citra.

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