Author name: Shamnad Basheer

Prof. (Dr.) Shamnad Basheer founded SpicyIP in 2005. He's also the Founder of IDIA, a project to train underprivileged students for admissions to the leading law schools. He served for two years as an expert on the IP global advisory council (GAC) of the World Economic Forum (WEF). In 2015, he received the Infosys Prize in Humanities in 2015 for his work on legal education and on democratising the discourse around intellectual property law and policy. The jury was headed by Nobel laureate, Prof. Amartya Sen. Professional History: After graduating from the NLS, Bangalore Prof. Basheer joined Anand and Anand, one of India’s leading IP firms. He went on to head their telecommunication and technology practice and was rated by the IFLR as a leading technology lawyer. He left for the University of Oxford to pursue post-graduate studies, completing the BCL, MPhil and DPhil as a Wellcome Trust scholar. His first academic appointment was at the George Washington University Law School, where he served as the Frank H Marks Visiting Associate Professor of IP Law. He then relocated to India in 2008 to take up the MHRD Chaired Professorship in IP Law at WB NUJS, a leading Indian law school. Later, he was the Honorary Research Chair of IP Law at Nirma University and also a visiting professor of law at the National Law School (NLS), Bangalore. Prof. Basheer has published widely and his articles have won awards, including those instituted by ATRIP, the Stanford Technology Law Review and CREATe. He was consulted widely by the government, industry, international organisations and civil society on a variety of IP issues. He also served on several government committees.

Breaking News: India’s Copyright Amendments Challenged

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As expected, India’s revolutionary copyright amendments seeking to foster social justice by providing mandatory royalty payments to music composers and lyricists has been challenged as unconstitutional. (For those interested, a text of the amendment is available here). A writ petition was first filed before the Supreme Court of India sometime last week by leading music labels, T Series and Venus Records, challenging interalia sections 17,18, 19, 30 and 33 of the amended Act. A bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and […]

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US Supreme Court Supports Parallel Imports: Lessons for India

/ By / Copyright

In a path-breaking development, the US Supreme Court endorsed the concept of international exhaustion and supported the parallel imports of copyrighted works.  This decision is of significant relevance to India, as a government committee headed by Prof Chadha of the NCAER is now considering whether or not to import international exhaustion principles into Indian copyright law.     Hopefully a ruling from the US, often seen as a very pro IP country should tilt the balance in favour of international exhaustion for

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Breaking News: Second Compulsory Licensing Application Filed

/ By / Patent

Many of us wondered as to why there was no compulsory licensing (CL) application after Natco’s momentous victory in procuring India’s first CL more than a year ago. This licence was upheld only a week or so ago by the IPAB (the written order is expected anytime next week).     It appears that the jinx has finally broken! We’re given to believe (from very authentic sources) that a second CL application was just filed at the Indian Patent Office

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Breaking "Hot" News: A "Star" Win for Unfair Competition

/ By / Copyright

In a significant IP milestone, the Delhi High Court recognised a separate tort of unfair competition (and unjust enrichment) and prevented Idea Cellular and other leading service providers from “misappropriating” real time cricket scores by sending out regular SMS updates. In upholding the claim of Star TV, which had acquired exclusive transmission rights from BCCI, the court relied significantly on the “hot news doctrine” evolved in the famous INS case, wherein the US Supreme Court had held: “The defendant’s acts

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A Tantalising Copyright Offer: Lessons from Canada and New Zealand

/ By / Copyright

A highly controversial copyright law-suit filed by leading publishers against Delhi University (DU) and its photocopier for creating and distributing “course packs” spurred a number of articles on this blog, traversing a number of legal issues.  For the latest update on this unfortunate suit, see our post here. One of the legal issues under discussion is whether or not Universities should obtain a copyright licence from the publishers. In fact, publishers did make this enticing offer in court, arguing that

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Compulsory Licensing is Not a Bad Word!

/ By / Patent

And with this telling statement, Justice Prabha Sridevan, Chariman of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) began a marathon seven hour dictation in open court, upholding India/s first compulsory license order (in the post TRIPS era) in favour of Natco, a leading generic manufacturer. Given that “compulsory licensing” has acquired rather malignant overtones in several circles (pun intended), it was only appropriate that the judge set the tone by beginning with this sentiment that will no doubt reverberate in the

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Breaking News: Student Association Impleaded in Access to Education (DU Photocopy) Case

/ By / Copyright

In a momentous development, the Delhi High Court permitted an association of students to intervene in a highly controversial law suit filed by leading publishers against Delhi University (DU) and its photocopier.  Here is the link to the intervention petition filed on behalf of the “Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge” by Jawahar Raja and Rajat Kumar, two Delhi based lawyers, who’ve been at the forefront of several legal battles to secure social justice. They were led by

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BMS Hepatitis Patent Invalidated: A Viral Effect for India?

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In a development with significant ramifications for India, a US district court recently invalidated a pharmaceutical patent covering Baraclude (Entecavir), a leading anti-viral drug for Hepatitis B patients. The drug brings in more than a billion dollars each year for BMS!  The invalidation was pursuant to a law suit bought by BMS (the patentee) against Teva, a leading Israeli generic company. This drug is of particular interest to India, given a roaring patent contest on this front between BMS and

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meme text: If i download a movie in jamaica, am i a pirate of the carribean

Pirates of the Carribean: Retaliating Against IP

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As expected, the WTO recently authorised Antigua, a tiny Carribean island, to “cross retaliate” against intellectual property belonging to the United States.  What this effectively means is that Antigua qualifies as a “legal” pirate of the Carribean i.e. it can pirate music and movies belonging to US copyright holders, without violating any international norm. (I deliberately use the term “legal” pirate, if only to evoke a strong paradox).”… As the US threatened Antigua with dire consequences for this purported “IP

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Patent Ambush: Big Pharma vs Generics

/ By / Drug Regulation, Patent

The Economic Times (ET) reports that MNC drug firms have been deploying the RTI (Right to Information) route to launch aggressive patent ambushes against generic firms. I quote: “Pharmaceutical multinationals have begun using the Right to Information law to launch pre-emptive legal action against local generic players to protect the market of patented drugs and delay the entry of low cost generic medicines in the 60,000-crore domestic drug market. MNCs are using such information to sue generic firms even at

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