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.

CIPLA Milking Indian Consumers? Charity Does Not Begin at Home!

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They say “charity” begins at home. If a recent news item is to believed, then CIPLA is doing exactly the opposite!! It has donned the mantle of being a charitable messiah in parts of the world like Africa by supplying cheap AIDS medicines–whilst at the same time over-charging its Indian consumers! The Hindu Reports that: “Drug-maker Cipla has received a Government notice demanding Rs 24.23 crore, inclusive of interest for alleged overcharging by the company on antibiotic ciprofloxacin during the

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SpicyIP Tidbits

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1. “Geographical Indication” (GI) Application for “Darjeeling” in Europe: The Eco Times reports that: “The Tea Board of India filed an application here Monday to register Darjeeling as a Geographical Indication (GI) in the European Union (EU). GI is a sign used on products, which have a specific geographical origin. The use of a GI often acts as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin. Darjeeling was the first

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SpicyIP Events

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1. India R&D 2007: December 5-6, 2007 at FICCI, Auditorium, New Delhi. See here for more details of this FICCI conference. Abstract below: After the success of the last two global conferences organized in Delhi on India R&D 2005 and India R&D 2006.FICCI in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is organizing the Third Global Conference on “India R&D 2007- Innovation, Advantage India” on The objective of the conference

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SpicyIP Jobs and Fellowships

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1. Leading UK law firm seeks Patent Attorney in Singapore The successful candidate will be involved in a wide range of work and will also be involved in the strategic direction of the patent practice. This role requires drafting of patent specifications, advise on filing and protection strategies, patent audits and supervising the drafting work of a team of patent engineers. The ideal candidate should have a degree in the field of Electrical / Electronics Engineering with patent prosecution experience

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Deepavali (Diwali) Greetings

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The SpicyIP Team wishes everyone a very happy Deepavali (Diwali). As many of you know, it is the “festival of lights”. We are very grateful for your readership and your wonderful comments that have helped throw more “light” on this esoteric subject. We’ve got some overwhelming responses to our “petition” to help improve the Indian patent office. I want to thank all of you for writing in personally and volunteering to help etc. It is very encouraging and spurs us

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USV Ltd vs Eli Lilly: Copy of Decision Rejecting Lilly Application

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I’m trying to lay my hands on the patent office pre grant decision in USV vs Eli Lilly, where USV successfully challenged Eli Lilly’s application for Forteo, an osteoporosis drug. I had blogged on it earlier here. If any of you have a copy of the decision or know someone at USV Ltd that can give us a copy of the decision, please let me know at . I promised to review this decision in my earlier post–but have been

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SpicyIP Petition: Request to make Indian Patent Information Public

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I’m sure that a number of you have been frustrated with the lack of a good Indian patent database. We’ve therefore created a online petition addressed to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, highlighting this lacuna and requesting his intervention. We urge all those concerned with this dismal state of affairs to voice your support by signing this petition (it will be helpful if you also state your affiliation in the signature, although this is not mandatory). We hope to

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Takeda vs Alphapharm: Implications for Section 3(d)

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This comes a little late in the day, but I finally managed to read the CAFC ruling in Takeda Chem. Indus. et al. v. Alphapharm et al (No. 2006-1329 (Fed. Cir. 2007)). Should be of particular interest to India, given that this involves Actos, an anti-diabetic drug by Takeda Chem Industries, Japan’s leading pharma company. Bloomberg recently reported that “Actos” overtook GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s “Avandia” as the world’s top-selling diabetes medicine after the Glaxo drug was linked in a May 21

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Government’s foolish proposal vetoed by Natco

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Readers will recollect an earlier post, where I lamented on a government proposal to have the IPAB decide the Novartis patent matter without a technical member. Thankfully, a sensible Natco has opposed this move. The Hindu reports: “Hearing on the Novartis AG’s plea to exclude a Technical Member of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) from hearing its statutory appeals against rejection of its patent application was on Tuesday adjourned to November 6 by the Madras High Court. Proposal opposed

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US Enablement Case: Relevance for Novartis Patent Case in India

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Harold Wegner’s timely email updates brought an excellent opinion by Judge Kimberly Moore to my attention. I’ve sat in her court once and she is fabulous (a razor sharp mind combined with a keen sense for the broad policy issues–she’d been an academic prior to her career as a judge). Hal’s email states: “Today in Pharm. Resources, Inc. v. Roxane Laboratories, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2007), (Moore, J.), in her first important pharmaceutical opinion, the newest member of the court authored

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