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.

USIBC and Section 3(d): Incremental Intelligence?

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A recent USIBC report on section 3(d) has caused a great deal of controversy, with public health groups decrying the presence of Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma at the inaugural function announcing this report. Priyanka Gollikeri of DNA has an interesting report documenting this controversy, where she notes: “The US study, a copy of which is with this newspaper, argues that incremental innovations can lead to a decrease in costs and increased access to drugs by reducing overall treatment costs and […]

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Valgancyclovir Hearings and the Need for More Transparency

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Post grant opposition hearings in the “Valgancyclovir” patent matter were held between 15th June and 18th June, 2009 before Assistant Controller, SP Subramaniam (no, the famous singer with a similar sounding name hasn’t switched professions yet.. this is an altogether different person with more of a scientific than an artistic bent). For those interested in a background to this opposition, see this summary by Lawyers Collective. The parties to the opposition involved Roche (the patentee, represented by Pravin Anand of

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IP Vacancies: Nokia (India) is Hiring Patent Professionals

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Three lucrative positions have opened up with Nokia (India). Since Nokia’s R&D in India has witnessed significant growth in recent years, the company is now seeking patent professionals that can help capture and protect Nokia’s innovation from India. Salaries will be commensurate with the best in the industry. The JD’s are below and the person (s) selected will work out of Bangalore. For those interested in any of these positions, please send your CVs to spicyip[at]gmail.com. PATENT ENGINEER / IPR

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Ramkumar Patent Saga: Customs Orders Stayed by Madras Court

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In earlier posts, we referred to three customs orders (from Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai) which were adverse to Ramkumar’s patent claim against dual SIM importers such as Samsung and Hansum India. SpicyIP is now given to believe that the orders by the Mumbai and Chennai commissioners were challenged by Ramkumar in a writ petition and have been stayed by the Madras High Court. We’re not sure about the Delhi Customs order and if any of you have information on this,

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Ramkumar Patent Case: New Delhi Customs Favours Samsung

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Following Mumbai and Chennai, the New Delhi Customs Commissioner too found against Ramkumar in one of the most heated patent disputes this year. In an order dated 8th June, 2009, JP Kundu, Asst Commissioner of Customs found that “From the foregoing facts, it is clear that the claim made by Shri S Ramkumar is vexatious, because the impugned goods are covered by prior art declared by him and are not infringing the patent granted to him. Demurrage and other warehousing

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Scrabble and the Copyright Design Interface: A 3-D Issue?

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In a previous post, we highlighted section 15(2) of the Copyright Act and its application to the Mattel vs Aggarwalla case, involving the online version of the famous word game, “Scrabble”. The wordings (no pun intended) of section 15 (2) leave much to be desired; it is no wonder then that its “tortuous” language has been the subject of intense litigation for several years now. In two very analytical posts, Sai pointed to some of the interpretational issues thrown up

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The Mint Is Looking for Legal Correspondents

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The Mint, a leading business paper, is looking to hire legal correspondents/analysts. Pay will be commensurate with the best in the industry (and will depend on years of experience etc). So for those of you looking to combine law with journalism, this presents a great opportunity. If interested, please write to Anil Padmanabhan ([email protected]), Deputy Managing Editor, Mint for further details. Also, please pass this on to folks that might be interested. As many of you are aware, we’ve often

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The Dual SIM (Ramkumar) Patent Murder: Vikas Partner Arrested

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The Hindu reports that Rajamani, one of the partners in Vikas Systems (the collection agency that worked for Ramkumar) was arrested for the gruesome murder of Sankaran Diwakaran: “One person was arrested on Wednesday in the case pertaining to the murder of a businessman, Sankaran Diwakaran, in K.K.Nagar on May 1. The arrested person, Rajamani, was a partner in the victim’s company. Business rivalry has been cited as the motive behind the murder. Sankaran Diwakaran was hacked to death by

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Delay in Filing a Power of Attorney(POA): Does it Prejudice a Patent Application?

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A quick query for our readers in the know: Although the Indian patents act requires the filing of a power of attorney (POA) along with the patent application, my understanding is that this can be filed at a later stage as well. And attorneys routinely file this later (after date of filing the application). Is this correct? Do our readers know what the global practice is in this regard? Do the USPTO, EPO, JPO etc require the power of attorney

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Introducing GIIP: A Leading Indian IP Training Institute

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I have the great pleasure of introducing the Global Institute of Intellectual Property (GIIP) to our readers. Many of you are likely to have already heard of this leading IP training institute that has notched up a commendable reputation in the short span of 2 years that its been around. GIIP, headquartered in New Delhi is the brainchild of the legendary silicon valley entrepreneur and TIE founder, Kailash Joshi. With a recently opened branch in Bangalore and a new collaboration

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