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).

Justice Manmohan Singh Appointed as IPAB Chairperson under Potentially Illegal Tribunal Rules – Continues to Hold the Post of Chairperson of Appellate Tribunal for Forfeited Property

/ By / Others

After more than a year of speculation, retired Delhi High Court judge, Justice Manmohan Singh has been appointed as the Chairperson of the IPAB, presumably under the Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal and other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other Conditions of Service of Members) Rules, 2017. These rules which have been notified under the Finance Act, 2017 are under constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court for impinging on the independence of the judiciary. Even more strangely, the notification mentions that Justice Manmohan Singh …

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IPRS Gets Re-registered as a Copyright Society – Akhtar & Saregama Bury the Hatchet

/ By / Copyright

The Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) has at long last been re-registered as a copyright society, under the Copyright Act, by the Registrar of Copyrights. The re-registration took place on November 28, 2017. As our readers may be aware, IPRS has been ‘ground zero’ for the turmoil and conflict between the authors and the music labels over the control of copyright societies. Originally constituted in 1969, as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Act, 1956 IPRS was first …

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By Invitation: The Delhi High Court Declares Louboutin’s Red Sole As a ‘Well Known Trademark’

/ By / Trademark

The Delhi High Court recently declared Christian Louboutin’s ‘Red sole’ a well known trademark. The decision is rather surprising and is going to once again raise questions about the Delhi High Court’s jurisprudence on well-known trademarks. We invited Eashan Ghosh to write a post for us on the issue. In his post, Eashan conducts a deep dive into the judgment delivered by the Delhi High Court in the ‘Red Sole’ case. He covers the court’s analysis of well known mark …

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RTIs reveal tardy record keeping practices at the IPO – no records of pending patent oppositions – 1,13,857 trademark oppositions pending + 5,533 rectifications

/ By / Patent, Trademark

Over the last two years we have been subject to a relentless stream of press statements from the DIPP Joint-Secretary Rajiv Agarwal and Controller General O.P. Gupta, about how the backlog at the Patents Office and Trade Mark Registry has been massively reduced over the last few years. First, let us give credit where it is due – the DIPP and Patent Office finally managed to conduct large scale recruitment process of patent office examiners without any major scandal – …

RTIs reveal tardy record keeping practices at the IPO – no records of pending patent oppositions – 1,13,857 trademark oppositions pending + 5,533 rectifications Read More »

Novartis succeeds in 37 patent infringement lawsuits related to Vidagliptin – Judge Tyagi dismisses the 38th lawsuit for lack of evidence

/ By / Patent

Starting in March, 2014 the Swiss Pharma company Novartis filed multiple qua timet patent infringement lawsuits against a number of generic companies including Biocon, Glenmark, Wockhardt Ajanta Pharma etc. and managed to secure several interim injunctions against these generics. While the lawsuits filed before the Delhi High Court got the most attention, Novartis through its counsel, Mr. Hemant Singh of Intettl Advocare, was also instituting lawsuits in courts across the country including in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Bombay, Nashik, Madras, Mohali …

Novartis succeeds in 37 patent infringement lawsuits related to Vidagliptin – Judge Tyagi dismisses the 38th lawsuit for lack of evidence Read More »

DIPP Should Hold Off IPAB Appointments until the Attorney General Clarifies Govt. Position on Tribunal Rules

/ By / Others

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has issued an advertisement inviting applications for the following posts at the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB): Vice-Chairperson, Technical Member (trademark), Technical Member (patent) & Technical Member (copyright). This decision of the DIPP to proceed with these appointments is surprising, given the multiple lawsuits filed against the government challenging the constitutionality of not only the Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal and other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other Conditions of Service of Members) Rules, 2017 …

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Turmoil in the Music Industry Continues, as ISRA Suffers Setbacks Before the Delhi High Court – Time for Some Truth & Reconciliation?

/ By / Copyright

A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court led by Justice Ravindra Bhat, on November 2, 2017 recently set aside three compromise decrees recognizing settlement deeds between the controversial Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA) and two defendants. These lawsuits are not the same ones which we have discussed earlier on this blog, where Single Judges of the Delhi High Court passed strange ex-parte decrees against certain food and drinks establishments who did not take licences from ISRA. The decrees that …

Turmoil in the Music Industry Continues, as ISRA Suffers Setbacks Before the Delhi High Court – Time for Some Truth & Reconciliation? Read More »

Remember that speech by the Home Minister linking copyright infringement to terrorism, well, I filed a RTI application and…….

/ By / Copyright

A couple of months ago, the Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh, while delivering the keynote speech at the ‘National Workshop on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights’ made some tall claims about how copyright infringement and piracy was funding terrorism. This particular urban legend, linking copyright infringement to terrorism has been the central plank of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for some time now despite there being no convincing evidence actually establishing the link between copyright piracy and …

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The Cloak of Confidentiality Over the Ericsson Patent Litigation Before the Delhi High Court

/ By / Patent

As discussed in my previous post, a lot of strange things have taken place in the patent litigation initiated by Ericsson against companies like Micromax, Gionee, Lava etc. For whatever reason, the judges of the Delhi High Court have thought it completely okay to cast aside the procedural safeguards in the law to grant Ericsson remedies that the company is simply not entitled to in law. A related issue, which in my opinion is of serious concern is the ease …

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Indian Mobile Manufacturers Dragged over the Coals by Ericsson and the Delhi High Court with Little Regard for Procedural Fairness

/ By / Patent

As many of our readers may be aware, there is long running litigation between Ericsson and Indian mobile phone manufacturers like Micromax, Intex, Lava and Gionee over the alleged infringement of 8 standard essential patents (SEPs) by the latter. We’ve written about it earlier over here, here and here. The intersection of standards and intellectual property rights has for long been a contentious issue but more so in context of the telecom industry. The technological requirement for having standards is …

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