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.

Another Win for Indian IP and Transparency: IPAB Website Updated

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In a previous post, we lamented that the IPAB did not put up timely web updates of its decisions. Feroz Ali, author of the leading Indian patent book, wrote in to thank us for our note on the blog in this regard and inform us that the IPAB has now put up its most recent decisions. We thank the IPAB for having done this. If any of you are aware of other Indian IP bodies that fail to make available […]

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Is Recession the Mother of Innovation?

/ By / Innovation, Patent

BusinessWeek has a special report on the current economic recession and the importance of innovation. One of the key articles in this report titled “Recession: The Mother of Innovation” states as below: “Necessity may be the mother of invention. But could a recession be the mother of innovation? After all, many of the world’s enduring, multibillion-dollar corporations, from Disney (DIS) to Microsoft (MSFT), were founded during economic downturns. Generally speaking, operating costs tend to be cheaper in a recession. Talent

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"In Transit" Drug Seizures and TRIPS: UK Decision May Help Indian Companies

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The IPKat reports a very recent decision from the UK courts involving an attempted seizure of “in transit” goods. The brief facts are as below: Nokia Corporation v Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Revenue & Customs (HMRC) [2009] EWHC 1903 (Ch) Nokia petitioned the UK customs authorities (HMRC) to seize counterfeit cell phones (bearing the Nokia trademark) that had reached London’s Heathrow airport from Hong Kong en route to Colombia. HMRC refused and Nokia challenged the said refusal before the UK

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Roche vs Cipla: Tarceva Patent to be reviewed by Indian Supreme Court

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CH Unni of the Mint reports that Roche will soon be filing their appeal against the Delhi High Court order, which not only found against Roche, but also went on to subject Roche to costs of Rs 5 lakhs for alleged wrongful suppression of patent information. In this article, I am quoted as stating: “According to a patent law expert, the validity of Roche’s patent was in serious doubt. “In view of the existence of Gefatinib, an earlier known molecule,

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Indian Intellectual Property: The (Differential) "Price" of Protection

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I recently attended the IP Business Congress (IPBC) in Chicago organised by the well known IP magazine, IAM (Intellectual Asset Management), the brain child of the dynamic Joff Wild. Reviews of this conference can be found on the IAM blog. A more detailed note highlighting some of the key sessions was penned by Michael F Martin on Broken Symmetry, a blog that I just discovered and have come to love. However, I must admit that this is one of those

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IPAB on a Roll: Ramkumar’s Dual SIM Patent Suspended

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Not content with having created its own law by ruling that “excessive pricing” can be used to reject a patent, the IPAB was at it again. On the 13th of July, in a remarkable development for intellectual property law, the IPAB suspended the operation of Ramkumar’s patent! And much like the Madras High Court reported earlier, it did so very crytically in a one para order that reads as below: “Counsel for the applicant present. Despite service of notice in

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Seeking Funding For Indian "Bayh Dole" and VIP Series

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As many of you may be aware, I organised a series of intellectual property and innovation lectures last term at the National Univeristy of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS). We’ve christened them as the VIP series (Venting Ideas on Intellectual Property). Some of the key speakers included: 1. Professor David Nimmer, one of the leading global copyright experts and revision author of the leading treatise “Nimmer on Copyright” spoke on the Google Copyright Disputes and their relevance to India. 2. Justice

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IIPS is Inviting Applications for its IP Courses

/ By / Patent

The Institute of Intellectual Property Studies (IIPS), one of the most reputed and perhaps oldest IP training institutes from India has informed SpicyIP that its new courses are beginning the 18th of July, 2009. For those of you who are interested in upgrading your IP skills/knowledgeable, please register quickly. I’ve been a part of several IIPS programs and have always been impressed with their overall quality. During my year at GW law school, IIPS hosted and held one of our

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Novartis Patent Rejection by the IPAB: Accessing the Decision

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In a previous post, I highlighted the key aspects of a decision by the IPAB (Intellectual Property Appellate Board) rejecting Novartis’ claim to a patent covering Glivec. CH Unni of the Mint carried a report on this decision. See also this report by PB Jayakumar in the Business Standard (unfortunately, there’s been a small misquote: the provision governing “public ordre or morality” is section 3(b) and not section 3(d), as stated in this piece). Many of you wrote to ask

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Breaking News: Indian IP Tribunal Denies Patent To Novartis’ Glivec

/ By / Patent

The IPAB (Intellectual Property Appellate Board) just ruled that Novartis’s patent application covering Glivec (beta crystalline version of Imatinib Mesylate) is not patentable, since it fails to satisfy the requirements under section 3(d) of the Indian patents act. This section requires that in order to be patentable, a pharmaceutical derivative must demonstrate significantly enhanced “efficacy” over and above the prior known molecule. And more controversially, the IPAB held against the grant of a patent, since Glivec costs Rs 120,000, a

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