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.

How an Indian Supreme Court Ruling (on Pharmaceutical Patents) Created a Chinese Blockbuster!

/ By / Patent

Too far fetched? Actually not quite. An Indian patent ruling did produce a big blockbuster. Not a drug, but a movie! Titled “Dying to Survive”, this Chinese film is turning out to be a big hit and making the cash registers ring. Here are some excerpts from an Indian Express piece. (For those interested, Quartz and the Daily-O also ran interesting pieces on this dark comedy.) “A Chinese black comedy, a movie lauding the benefits of generic anti-cancer drugs manufactured […]

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Of Privacy, Accountability and an Atrocity called Aadhaar: Whither Legal Liability?

/ By / Privacy

Privacy continues to remain a contested subject matter. I don’t mean contests over the bounds of privacy (particularly in the digital milieu), but a contest that is rather specific to IP: does privacy really count as a species of IP? IP lawyers (and I count myself as part of this blessed breed) are a covetous lot: seeking to constantly expand our kitty of IP kinds. In fact, so influential is our lot in India that unlike the rest of the world,

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Creative Destruction at it’s Best: The Death of Manual Scavenging?

/ By / Innovation, Patent

In a provocative address last year at IDIA’s annual conference, Magsaysay Award winner, Dr Bezwada Wilson rhetorically asked: How is it that we managed to send a mission (Mangalyaan) to Mars? And yet, for all our technological prowess, we still have not figured out a way to end manual scavenging! A dastardly practice with deep roots in India’s caste hierarchy and one that continues to haunt us to this day…with lower caste communities inflicted with this bountiful burden of cleaning

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Dial B For “Bonafide” Patent Working: The Natco Irony

/ By / Patent

          Did you ever think that Natco would oppose patent working disclosure norms? After all, they benefitted from it when they applied for India’s first compulsory license. And used Bayer’s patent working information (Form 27 filings) to demonstrate that Bayer was not meeting the reasonable requirements of the public through their patented anti-cancer drug, Nexavar. Based on this assertion, they were granted the compulsory license and began selling their version of Nexavar at a much cheaper

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Patent Working PIL: Ericsson claims “Club Confidentiality”

/ By / Patent

Continuing from our last post on the Delhi high court hearing on the patent working PIL, here goes: A bench comprising Justices Gita Mittal and Hari Shankar took up the matter as the first item around 10.30 or so. The court was packed, owing to the presence of a number of senior counsels. Gopal Subramanium, Sandeep Sethi and Rajiv Nayyar appeared for Ericsson (as noted earlier, Ericsson and Natco had filed applications to intervene in the matter). Whew! 3 of

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Patent Working PIL (Update): Govt To Frame Rules To Prosecute Errant Patentees

/ By / Patent

Continuing our updates on the patent working PIL, here is what transpired in court today (bench comprising Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Hari Shankar) . A number of leading counsels including Sandeep Sethi, Rajiv Nayyar, Pravin Anand, Chander Lall etc showed up for a number of parties that wished to intervene in the matter (such as Ericsson etc). Ericsson and Natco had filed applications for intervention at the last date of hearing (18th Feb) and I will carry a separate

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Creative Ways of Cutting Pendency: Abandonment vs Allowance?

/ By / Patent, Trademark

The BRICS block (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are a major force to contend with. For these countries are seen as potential world leaders (if not already). Along with Annalisa Primi, a stellar economist, I co-authored a paper some years ago referring to these countries as “Technologically Proficient Developing Countries” (TPDCs). And hoped that some of these countries would break out of the standard IP script (driven in large part by the developed world) and carve out

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Delhi High Court Makes Clear that Patent Working Information is not “Confidential”

/ By / Patent

The Delhi high court order on “patent working” that we blogged about earlier is now available on our resource page here. As you can see, it is a very well reasoned order. And one of the few decisions that is not unduly long winded, but short, crisp and legally lucid. Here are the key excerpts from the decision. Am reproducing the introductory paragraphs of the courts ruling, since the court captures the core essence of the petition quite well. The court

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SpicyIP Interview Series (1): Justice Prabha Sridevan on Life, Laughter and IP

/ By / Others, Patent

As promised in our new year post on the relativity of “newness” (and the impending death of the patent system), we bring to you our freshly minted SpicyIP Interview series. And who better to kick this off than the inimitable Justice Prabha Sridevan. She hardly needs an introduction, as her legacy is stamped indelibly on many a fine Indian IP decision (which she penned both as high court judge and later, as the Chairman of the Intellectual Property Appellate Tribunal[IPAB]).

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Obsessing on Newness: The Death of Patents?

/ By / Innovation, Patent

And it’s the dawn of another New Year. With “new” resolutions, resolves and all of that. But as a witty whatsapp forward notes, this one is rather special. For our millennium has just come of age! Its’ turned 18 (2018) —the age of majority in most countries. So hopefully we’ll see the show shaping of adulthood this year. But what of IP? IP is about “newness” after all. And, as a society, we’re obsessed with newness. Ti’s only fitting therefore

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