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.

Waking a Sleeping Giant: Financing University Research

/ By / Innovation

We bring you a thought provoking guest post on the complex issue of financing University research from Dr Roya Ghafele, an Oxford academic. This issue did crop up, albeit incidentally, during our discussions on the controversial Indian “Bayh Dole” bill, a bill that appears to have turned a bit reclusive of late. Before we plunge into Roya’s novel “third way” approach towards research financing, let me try and capture her illustrious career graph in a few paragraphs. Roya holds a […]

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Breaking News: Spike in Indian IP Filing Numbers and Revenues

/ By / Patent, Trademark

A very reliable source at the DIPP informs us that 2010-2011 has seen a sharp rise in IP filings (patents, trademarks and designs) at the Indian Patent Office. And importantly, a sharp turn in the fortunes of the IPO, which apparently made Rs 250 crores this year, when compared with Rs 214 crores last year! One hopes that some of this money makes its way into ramping up the IP databases. The comparative numbers are listed below (these are broad

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The Death of Data Exclusivity?

/ By / Data Exclusivity

After several months of secretive deliberations, intense politicking and protests, sophisticated debates and powerful op-eds, apparent volte faces, subtle media subterfuge and various other things that might have made for a good Bollywood blockbuster, it appears that the Minister of Commerce, Anand Sharma has finally nailed the coffin and buried the data exclusivity (FTA) debate once and for all! During a recent meeting of a Parliamentary Committee dealing with intellectual property, the Minister, who chaired the meeting announced that India

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The Curious Case of the "Data Exclusivity" Volte Face

/ By / Data Exclusivity

In an earlier post, we referred to a rather curious article by Financial Express (FE) which claimed that some of our biggest generic names, namely Dr Reddys and Glenmark executed a stunning volte face and were now cosying up to the idea of data exclusivity. Certainly had my alarm bells ringing, as I’m sure it did for many of you tracking this space. I spoke immediately with that tireless crusader and one man army that goes by the name of

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P-PIL: Call for Applications

/ By / Copyright

P-PIL (Promoting Public Interest Lawyering) was recently formed to further the cause of public interest through the instrumentality of law in India. It aims to create synergies between law schools, the legal profession and various other stakeholders to leverage their respective talents and resources in order to achieve shared public interest goals. P-PIL has featured on this blog in the recent past in connection with three IP matters. 1. It began its tryst with public interest law by co-ordinating and

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Parallel Imports, Exports and Access to Education: A Numbers Game

/ By / Copyright

Show me the numbers, screamed an angry colleague of mine, sympathetic to the claims of book publishers. This altercation took place in the wake of a Mint opinion piece that I had authored arguing that a proviso to section 2(m) legalising parallel imports was laudable and in the interests of consumers, particularly students. I argued that the publisher objection to this proposed amendment was nothing more than a protectionist scream and that the onus was on them to demonstrate why

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Breaking News: Supreme Court Stays Copyright Board Order

/ By / Copyright

SpicyIP just learnt that the Supreme Court stayed the controversial copyright board compulsory licensing order! A bench comprising of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Cyriac Joseph stayed the order this afternoon. PPL had appealed against the order of the copyright board fixing royalties to be paid by radio stations at 2%. The matter was listed for admission today and after hearing counsels, the Supreme Court issued the stay. It is not clear whether the Supreme Court admitted the matter before

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Shortened Parliament Session and IP Bills

/ By / Copyright

ET carried a short edit today on the impact that a shortened budget session of Parliament might have on pending bills. Apparently, given state elections in the coming months, the government (as also other political parties) are keen on winding up the budget session by the end of March (as opposed to continuing till the start of May). The edit takes a very critical view of this proposed “shortening” move and notes: “In its hurry, the government is willing to

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Breaking News: CBI Raids Trademark Registrar’s House

/ By / Trademark

Even as this message is being typed out, the home of ND Kasturi, Deputy Registrar of Trademarks is being raided by officials from the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). These government sleuths are also simultaneously inspecting her office room (and files) at the Patent and Trademark Office, Chennai. Allegations of corruption have dogged this Registrar for as long as I can remember. Once this raid completes, we’ll know if there was any truth to these long standing allegations. Kasturi featured

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Demise of Dr Vidya Sagar, Indian IP Legend

/ By / Uncategorized

With great sadness, we bring you news of the demise of Dr. Vidya Sagar, Senior Partner at Remfry & Sagar and doyen of Indian IP. He was 85 and passed away last afternoon. In many ways, he was the father of Indian IP, having built up one of the foremost IP law firms in the country, after having taken it over in 1973. Most of the leading IP professionals today were trained by Dr Sagar during their stint at Remfry

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