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.

SpicyIP Tidbits: Indian GI’s and the Need for "Introspection"

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Arun S of the Financial Express has this thoughtful article on Geographical Indications, where he rightly calls for some “introspection” which I reproduce below. Statements attributed to me are broadly correct, though not entirely accurate. I had stressed that “quality” of examinations is an important issue, and unless we see decisions on oppositions (such as in the Reliance “Jamnagar” case, which I believe is the only case where an opposition has been filed), it may not be “fair” for us […]

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Cross Retaliaton by Suspending IP: Can India Take the Lead?

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Readers may recollect previous posts on an interesting concept titled “Cross Retaliation”. The Mint carried an op-ed of mine on this theme, which I reproduce below. To access the full length article outlining this concept and laying down the broad parameters for a domestic legislation in this regard, see here. Make that Bargain Equitable The recent World Trade Organization (WTO) talks came a cropper: Despite intense negotiations over weeks, member states could not agree on critical “agricultural” issues. Under the

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Roche Intimidation: Techgoss Article on "New Low"

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Techgoss, a leading technology news blog, published by DJ Varma, a reputed journalist, has this punchy piece on the Roche intimidation episode that we highlighted earlier: Indian blog threatenedBy Bala Shah First there was the world of mainstream media where a few business houses-owned newspapers told us what was happening in the world. Then PM Rao, Finance Minister Manmohan Singh started the liberation of our energies and economy. The BJP continued this push towards a market economy and handed the

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Roche vs Cipla: Personal Intimidation by Roche Representative

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Tis’ certainly the season of “intimidation” for SpicyIP. My aunt in Kerala received a call from someone who claimed to be a Roche representative, but never gave his name. He fretted and fumed that my writings on the blog were “anti Roche” and warned her, in no uncertain terms, that if I continued with such writings, I would pay for it dearly! And that, as a responsible aunt, she ought to warn me against my errant ways. Naturally, I was

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Roche vs Cipla: Is the Roche-OSI/Pfizer Licence Registered in India?

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One of my friends drew my attention to sections 68 and 69 of the Indian Patents Act, and asked a few perplexing queries. At the end of which, it occured to me that these very same provisions might have implications for the Roche vs Cipla case, that is now being adjudicated upon by an appellate bench of the Delhi High Court. For our previous posts on this issue, see here. The net result of sections 68 and 69 is that

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Introducing Our "Spicy" Logo

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After dilly-dallying for a while, we’ve finally designed our own SpicyIP logo. It’s on the top left hand corner of the blog. I’ve also placed it along with this post. We once again wish to thank our wonderful readers for helping us come this far. Your support and encouragement means a lot to us. Please let us know what you think of this logo. Spicy enough?

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Roche vs Cipla: Will the Real Price of "Tarceva" Please Show Up?

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Last Thursday, Arun Jaitley finally wound up his arguments on behalf of Cipla. A very impressive performance and I can see why Cipla won relatively easily at the first instance. As SpicyIP suspected in its last post, Jaitley completely downplayed the “public interest” argument. Perhaps a wise, strategic move, given that Justice Shah was beginning to express concerns about openly endorsing a rule that hinged on pricing and might have operated as a de facto compulsory licensing/pricing regime. Abhishek Singhvi

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Patent Office Manual: Pre-judging the Novartis-Glivec Case?

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In a previous post, Prashant touched upon the brazen way in which the patent manual sought to prejudge the Novartis (Glivec) case. For those of you not familiar with the Novartis patent litigation (given the 100 odd posts that we’ve done so far on this big ticket patent litigation in India, its highly unlikely that our readers may not have come across this till now), here is a brief gist, from a recent paper of ours that was published a

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Breaking News: India’s First "Sound" Mark Registered

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SpicyIP just learnt that India’s Trademark Office has granted the first “sound” mark in favour of Yahoo Inc yesterday! Simply put, a sound mark is a non-conventional trademark where sound is used to perform the trademark function of uniquely identifying the commercial origin of products or services. Classic examples include the thunderous sound of a Harley Davidson (though it appears that that this registration failed in the US after severe opposition), MGM’s roar of a lion etc. For a collection

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Celebrating Independence Day: Freedom from Trade Protection?

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SpicyIP wishes its readers a very happy independence day. In a previous post, we highlighted a US guideline that appeared to possess all the trappings of a trade protectionist measure. Gauri Kamath has an interesting article on this theme in the Businessworld, which I reproduce below. She quotes David Perla, co-CEO of New York’s Pangea3, a leading LPO that employs lawyers in India, as stating that the guideline will not really have any significant impact on Indian service providers. (Perhaps)

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