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).

Barry Trotter, Hairy Potty & the Free Speech Defense to Trademark Infringement

/ By / Trademark

Over the last week or so Sumathi’s incisive posts, on the issue of Warner Bros suing the makers of Hari Puttar for trademark infringement, have had me thinking over some of the issues associated with parodies. Over the years J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has spurned more than its fair share of literary parodies. In fact Wikipedia has a full article dedicated to the various parodies of Harry Potter. The ones that caught my attention were Barry Trotter and The Shameless […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Boehringer Ingelheim to patent its hypertension drug

/ By / Uncategorized

Readers may remember Shamnad’s extensive posts on the Patent Office’s rejection of German drug major Boehringer Ingelheim patent application for the syrup form of Nevirapine, which is particularly important for children with HIV, who are unable to swallow tablets. Well, the ToI reports that Boehringer Ingelheim is filing another patent application, this time for a combination hypertension drug – Telmisartan. Cipla’s wholly owned subsidiary Okasa is going to be opposing the drug on the grounds that the individual drugs and

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Bollywood abound with suits for copyright infringement

/ By / Copyright

Once again Bollywood music directors are being accused of copyright infringement. Sheela Narayanan & Chang May Choon of The Electric New Paper Show (interesting name!) were the first and so far only media outlet to report that Sony BMG has initiated legal proceedings against Tips on the grounds that Pritam’s ‘Zara Zara Touch me….‘ song (featuring the drop dead gorgeous Katrina Kaif in the video) from this year’s Bollywood blockbuster Race has been ripped off from a tune composed by

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The ‘Olympic’ Copyright Dispute – DD sues news channels for broadcasting footage of the Beijing Olympic Games

/ By / Copyright

At last, SpicyIP gets to blog even about the Beijing Olympics where India has had a record tally of three medals this time. Of course its not about the medals but the fact that national broadcaster Doordarshan has reportedly issued notice to major Indian news channels for unauthorized broadcast of the Beijing Olympic Games for which only DD has exclusive broadcast rights in India. DD had paid about $ 3 Million for the exclusive Indian broadcasting rights. Apparently DD had

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Don’t lose hope Ms. Jishnu – Keep the faith

/ By / Copyright

Today’s Business Standard carried Ms. Latha Jishnu’s weekly column. As always Ms. Jishnu’s article made for some interesting reading. For this week she had written about the anti-IP crusades of Brazil’s Grammy Award winning former cultural minister – Gil. Of course Ms. Jishnu does not descend into the extremities of asking for the dissolution of the copyright regime but instead limits herself to a call for diluting the copyright regime on the lines of Gil’s efforts in Brazil which has

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Chrysler grills Mahindra over front grill design

/ By / Uncategorized

After their last IP dispute over the ‘Jeep’ trademark, Chrysler and Indian car major Mahindra & Mahindra have moved on to their next IP dispute over the design of Scorpio’s front grill. Chrysler has alleged that the Mahindra & Mahindra has ripped off one of its designs for the front grill. Its not clear as to whether or not Chrysler had actually protected its design under the Indian Designs Act. Regardless Chrysler could still sue for copyright infringement. Media reports

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The Draft Manual of the Patent Office and SpicyIP’s recommendations on Section 3(d)

/ By / Uncategorized

As many of you must already know the Patent Office has been having stakeholders meetings in various cities in regards the Draft Manual released by the Patent Office some months ago. It needs no repeating that the Draft Manual does not have the force of law and is merely indicative of the practices of the Patent Office. The Delhi and Bombay meetings have already been concluded. The patent office discussed the participation in a press release which can be accessed

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Supreme Court delivers judgment in a case under the Designs Act

/ By / Design

In May this year Shamnad had blogged about how the Supreme Court was on an ‘IP Roll’ since it had rendered three IP related judgments in that month itself. Well here is another Supreme Court decision from the month of May. In this case of Bharat Glass Tubes Ltd. v. Gopal Glass Works Ltd. the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the single judge of the Calcutta High Court to reverse an order passed by the Asst. Controller of Patents

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Gujarat High Court grants interim injunction in Designs Case

/ By / Uncategorized

In May this year the Gujarat High Court in the case of Troikaa Pharmaceuticals v. Pro Laboratories MANU/GJ/0364/2008 decided its first case under the Designs Act in favour of the plaintiff. The plaintiff in this case was manufacturing ‘D’ shaped tablets and had registered the design with the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks. The Controller after verification registered the design under Class 28 and awarded the plaintiff with a certificate of registration in the year 2001. The plaintiff

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Indian Government joins litigation over ‘Ponni’ trademark in Malaysia

/ By / Trademark

Readers may remember that a couple of months ago Aysha had blogged on Malyasia granting a domestic company a trademark for the name ‘Ponni‘. ‘Ponni’ is actually a variety of rice grown in parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The rice is unique for its low starch and carbohydrates content which means that it can be safely consumed even by people suffering from diabetes. Well Harish Damodaran reports in the Hindu Business Line that the Indian Government has

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