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.

The (Copyright) Remainders of the Day

/ By / Copyright

In the recent past, section 2(m) of the copyright amendment bill dealing with parallel imports has provoked a great deal of controversy. I reflect on this controversy in an opinion piece in the Mint and argue that the reasons offered by publishers for killing this provision are unconvincing. Thomas Abraham’s first piece titled “The Death of Books” that sparked off the debate is here. Rahul Mathan countered this doomsday prediction here. Pranesh’s elaborate views (including an exchange with Thomas Abraham […]

The (Copyright) Remainders of the Day Read More »

The Sound of Silencing (a blog)

/ By / Trademark

If there is one thing that we cherish on this blog, it is the ability to speak our hearts and minds freely, within the reasonable bounds of propriety and the law. Naturally, we are wont to take umbrage at any attempt to silence us, particularly by those that have a vested interest in the outcome of a case. Given that a prime objective of this blog is to foster transparency in IP institutions, we often have to hunt for and

The Sound of Silencing (a blog) Read More »

Outsourcing Indian Patent Searches to CSIR: Insourcing Conflict?

/ By / Uncategorized

As many of you in the patent line may have heard, the Indian Patent Office has begun to outsource its prior art searches to CSIR, India’s largest public funded patentee. As expected, the move comes with its fair share of controversy. Is there a conflict? Will the walls of our esteemed neighbours help quell the possibility that CSIR acts in a biased manner against its competitors, existing or potential? Could CSIR take the plea that it anyway acts in national

Outsourcing Indian Patent Searches to CSIR: Insourcing Conflict? Read More »

Data Exclusivity Debate: Whither Context?

/ By / Data Exclusivity

In this wired world of ours, they say that content is king. After reading Prashant’s impressively articulated post on data exclusivity, I’m inclined to supplement this with : “context is also king”. And unless content situates itself within context, it risks a painful dethroning. For context is one thing that he missed in an otherwise persuasive post: the “context” of the current EU-India FTA negotiations, where it is abundantly clear that the clarion call for data exclusivity comes from European

Data Exclusivity Debate: Whither Context? Read More »

CSIR Tempers Patent Aggression

/ By / Patent

This piece is slightly dated, but an interesting one nonetheless. Soma Das of the FE highlights CSIR’s changing patent culture from that of an aggressive patent filer to a more temperate and selective one. However, the numbers don’t really add up and there are some inconsistencies. While CSIR claims to have adopted such a temperate stance since 2007, its foreign filings went up in 2009, relative to its filings in 2008. The numbers for total foreign filings in each of

CSIR Tempers Patent Aggression Read More »

Reciprocal Recordings: Copyright Charity Must End at Home

/ By / Copyright

In our submissions to the Parliamentary Standing Committee (tasked with examining the recent copyright amendment bill), we argued strongly in favour of strengthening our “reciprocity” provisions, an aspect first brought to light on this blog by Nikhil Krishnamurthy. The committee either missed the point altogether or refused to take note of it, as it does not find any mention in their otherwise sophisticated report. Barking dogs may never bite, but when peeved, they tend to bark a bit louder. And

Reciprocal Recordings: Copyright Charity Must End at Home Read More »

Accuracy of IPTO Data: Bidding Tata to Reliance?

/ By / Patent

Responding to Sumathi’s post announcing the latest transparency drive by the IPTO, wherein registered trademarks are now freely searchable via an online database, a commentator rightly expressed concern at the accuracy of data entries. This issue of accuracy, and the extent to which IP stakeholders can rely on this data could not have come at a more opportune moment. For in a recent patent infringement suit, an unsuspecting patentee got caught on the wrong foot owing to a negligent database

Accuracy of IPTO Data: Bidding Tata to Reliance? Read More »

Transparency Move Sounds the Death Knell of a Paternalistic Section 45

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

The IPTO (Indian Patent and Trademark Office) hit another nail in the coffin of several of us who made money off clients by performing perfunctory TM searches. However, the “half full” cup suggests that this will free up a lot of our time to engage with serious TM work involving actual legal analysis, assessment and advice. And leave the dirty work to a not so aesthetically appealing online database. As Sumathi rightly notes, we need to applaud the IPTO for

Transparency Move Sounds the Death Knell of a Paternalistic Section 45 Read More »

Copyrighting a Wrong and Injecting Fairness into Bollywood

/ By / Copyright

A Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendation that music composers and lyricists are to get an equal share of all revenues that flow from the commercialisation of film music has stirred a hornet’s nest. Bollywood producers are now threatening to strike against this provision and apprehend that if this provision converts to law, they will be forced to shut down! As we debate the pros and cons of this historical provision, we need to ask ourselves a fundamental question. What is the

Copyrighting a Wrong and Injecting Fairness into Bollywood Read More »

Trademark Clearances for Copyright?

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

I’ve always wondered at the logic of a rather bizarre provision under the Indian copyright act. Section 45 relates to artistic works that have the potential to double up as trademarks. It states that prior to registering any of such works under the Copyrights Act, one must obtain a “no-objection” certificate from the Trademarks registry. The section reads as under: “Provided that in respect of an artistic work which is used or is capable of being used in relation to

Trademark Clearances for Copyright? Read More »

Scroll to Top