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 Ramkumar Dual SIM Patent Case: A Declaratory Suit?

/ By / Patent

Pursuant to our last post on this theme, SpicyIP just heard that Micromax, a dual SIM cell phone importer filed a declaratory suit for non infringement before a court in Gurgaon (very close to New Delhi and part of the NCR region). This suit asks the court to declare that Micromax’s imports of dual SIM phones do not infringe Ramkumar’s patent, since they are outside the scope of the claims in his patent. Do any of our readers have more […]

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The Growing Promiscuity of Indian Courts in Granting "Ex Parte" Injunctions

/ By / Patent

In several earlier posts, I lamented the fact that some Indian courts are beginning to demonstrate a rather promiscuous propensity to grant “ex-parte” restraining orders (i.e. orders without even hearing the other side) at the drop of a hat in highly technical patent cases. The latest example is the case of Ramkumar, an overzealous patentee who’s claimed much more than what he legitimately invented and squeezed illegitimate royalties out of many dual sim phone importers in the process. Our earlier

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Public Sector IP and Socially Responsible Licensing

/ By / Patent

Today, we bring you a guest post from Harry Thangaraj, who does some very interesting work around intellectual property and developing economies. I’ve had the pleasure of discussing some of these issues with him and find him to be extremely insightful. I’m therefore very happy to introduce him to our readers, who will no doubt benefit significantly from his perspective. Particularly since his work is not limited to just to the theory of IP and Development, but he is one

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FICCI Conference on Pharma Innovation and Public Health

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For an upcoming pharma conference in Mumbai (on 18th March) organised by FICCI, the Indian Ministry of Pharmaceuticals and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), please see FICCI website. One of the sessions deals with Innovation and Public Health. I’ve also extracted details of the conference from the FICCI website below. Pharmaceuticals 2014: Will India Leap ForwardMarch 18, 2009, Hotel Taj Lands End, Mumbai FICCI jointly with Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Govt. of India and Observer Research

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Off-Topic: Screening “Smoking” Bans through a Constitutional Lens

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Since I’ve lit up the cancer stick a great number of time till last year, all things relating to smoking interest me considerably. For those of you interested in a discussion on a recent Delhi High Court judgment on the constitutionality of “smoking” bans, see this post of mine at “Law and Other Things”, perhaps India’s leading blawg. This post draws on an editorial piece in the Mint, which I reproduce below: The law, smoke and mirrors “I often wonder

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Customs Seizures in India: Patently Unconstitutional?

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CH Unnikrishnan of the Mint breaks the news on a writ petition filed by Samsung challenging the constitutionality of India’s customs regulations governing the import of IP goods. The matter came up today before Justice Vikramjit Sen of the Delhi High Court, but was adjourned for hearing to Tuesday (17th March). We’ll bring you an update of this case on Tuesday. It ought not to be lost on our readers that this is one of those rare cases where a

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Ducking TRIPS in India: Novartis "Glivec" Case and Section 3(d)

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IPOsgoode just carried a guest post of mine featuring a recent paper on the “jurisdictional” dimensions of the Madras High Court decision in the Novartis case (dealing with the constitutionality and TRIPS compatibility of section 3(d)). IPOsgoode, the IP wing of the Osgoode law school (a leading law school from Canada), is becoming a force to reckon with in the international IP space and has excellent articles on a variety of contemporary IP issues. It is the brainchild of a

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Bayer vs UOI and Cipla: The Mint Reports on Government Apathy

/ By / Drug Regulation

Pursuant to our post lamenting government apathy in the controversial Bayer vs UOI/Cipla case that sought to introduce “patent linkage” in India, CH Unni of the Mint now reports: Centre faulted by experts on Bayer-Cipla patent case C.H. Unnikrishnan The Indian government may not be showing adequate interest in a litigation in the Delhi high court that involves a controversial patent linkage to drug approval, say experts. The lawsuit is based on a writ petition filed by Germany’s Bayer AG,

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Bayer vs UOI and Cipla: A "Spurious" Tale

/ By / Drug Regulation

Following earlier posts on the Bayer vs Union of India (UOI)/Cipla writ proceedings before the Delhi High Court, let me bring to your attention another fallacious argument advanced by Bayer where they attempt to label all generic drugs as “spurious” drugs. Bayer’s writ petition states that Cipla’s generic version of Sorafanib, purported to be sold under the brand name “Soranib” would amount to a “spurious drug” under Section 17B of The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. This section provides as

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Bayer vs UOI and Cipla: Patent Apathy by the Government?

/ By / Drug Regulation

In our last post, we bemoaned the fact that the government was not taking the Bayer writ seriously enough. This apathy caused Dilip Shah, Secretary General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) to write a letter to the government, as below: (A similarly worded letter was addressed to Mr Ashok Kumar, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals as well). To:Mr Naresh Dayal SecretaryDepartment of HealthMinistry of Health & Family WelfareNirman Bhawan, Room No. 149New Delhi 110 011 Dear Mr Dayal, Re: Delhi

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