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).

U.K High Court rules on patents for computer programs

/ By / Patent

Our readers may remember an earlier SpicyIP post on patents for computer programs being dis-allowed in the United Kingdom by the Court of Appeals in the Aerotel/Macrossan case. Well thats not the law of U.K. anymore. The High Court recently ruled that the practice of the UK Patent Office in flatly rejecting patent claims to computer products is wrong and remitted the applications to the Patent Offices. Software patents are quite a nuanced area of patent law (which in itself […]

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Suven Life Sciences gets its 2nd U.S Patent

/ By / Patent

Hyderabad based Biopharmaceutical company Suven Life Sciences Ltd. was recently granted product patent bearing no: 7,317,035 by the United States Patent Office. The patent was for a class of a class of selective Serotonin receptor affinity compounds, used in the treatment of neuro-degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson, schizophrenia and Huntington’s disease. These compounds are being developed into therapeutic agents by Suven. Suven estimates that these drugs once developed will help it tap an $18 billion market. The company has an

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Bollywood and Online Piracy

/ By / Copyright

Last year we witnessed the first Indian case of copyright infringement against You Tube which was filed by T-Series. However I’m little surprised as to why there has been only one case against U-Tube so far especially when there have been several instances of copyrighted Bollywood content being uploaded onto You Tube. Americans on the other hand being the litigious society that they are, have been having a field day suing U-Tube for the copyright infringements. The biggest claim is

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Geographical Indications (GIs) make their mark in Bihar & Orissa

/ By / Uncategorized

Bihar and Orissa are two of the most disturbed and impoverished states in India. Usually wracked with perennial law and order problems whether it be Marxist rebels, caste violence or tribal movements, it is heartening to note that these states seem to have woken up to their Intellectual Property Rights especially Geographical Indications. As SpicyIP has already discussed extensively a GI is the protection given to a reputable product, either man-made or natural, if the applicant can conclusively prove that

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Candico’s sticky trademark dispute over its ‘Big Bubble’ chewing gum

/ By / Trademark

The BS reported recently that Candico, the Indian confectionary MNC, lost its long standing trademark dispute with Perfetti – the Italian confectionary major (makers of Mentos) – before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board. Candico is one of the largest players in the chewing gum market in India and has been “making millions of children smile”.The trademark dispute started way back in 1998 with a legal notice from Perfetti to Candico, demanding that the company stop using the words ‘The Big

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Creative Commons, Independent Music and TempoStand.com

/ By / Copyright

As with most new internet start-ups, the story of http://www.tempostand.com/, too, begins with a bunch of young techies who have recently graduated from the Dirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT). What’s heartening, from the viewpoint of SpicyIP, is that here is an Indian business venture which has skillfully used alternative IP regimes as central to its business model and in the process is providing a unique service to the world of Indian music (Just as there is

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The National Knowledge Commission calls for an overhaul of India’s patent process

/ By / Uncategorized

As most of our readers must know by now, SpicyIP has been a long standing critic of the lack of transparency in the Patent Office’s decision making process. The lack of a real time e-enabled patent database, apart from preventing the strengthening of India’s pre-grant opposition mechanism, also complicates matters for those interested in contributing to IP policy making. SpicyIP had sent a petition in this regard to the Prime Minister’s Office a couple of weeks ago. The National Knowledge

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Blawging our way to the front pages of Business Standard

/ By / Uncategorized

SpicyIP is happy to announce to its readers that we’re ending the year on a happy note. The Business Standard one of India’s leading newspapers carried a front page report on how bloggers, like the SpicyIP Team, are driving India’s IPR agenda! The leading blogs mentioned in the report were SpicyIP, Feroze Ali’s pharmapatents.blogspot.com, Sandeep Rathod’s genericpharmaceuticals.blogspot.com & Varun Chhonker’s patentcircle.blogspot.com. The report goes on to say that the blogs are being recognized for “separating the wheat from the chaff

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Copyrights, Music Licenses and New Year Parties

/ By / Copyright

In yet another bid to establish the undeniable importance of IP law in your daily life, SpicyIP, is going to demonstrate how the Law of Copyright is going to impact all you party animals this December 31st. The Hindu recently reported that the Phonographic Performance Ltd.(PPL), a registered copyright society under the Copyright Act, is demanding that all commercial establishments start paying up for the music that they will be playing at year-end parties failing which action will be taken

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SpicyIP Tidbits

/ By / Uncategorized

1. Pfizer gets a patent for its anti-HIV drug Pfizer was recently granted a patent, by the Indian Patent office, for its HIV/AIDS treatment drug – Celzentry. This is a significant victory for Pfizer given the much publicized rejection of patents for several other drugs. Given the huge HIV infected population in India it is expected that this drug will be a major revenue spinner for Pfizer in India. As a result Pfizer’s stock shot up 7.5% on the Indian

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