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.

Secret Sovaldi Hearings: Whither Transparency?

/ By / Patent

In yet another blow for transparency, the Indian patent office is apparently doing all it can to discourage members of the public from accessing the patent opposition hearings in the Sovaldi (Sofosbuvir) case. This despite the fact that this case is of monumental public importance (not just in India but internationally). And more importantly, despite the clear existence of Rule 139 of the patent rules (pointed out to be by the wonderful Feroz Ali) which states that: Hearing before the Controller […]

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Bringing Back the Zing: SpicyIP Fellowship of the Ring

/ By / Others

So the blog lost a bit of it’s zing in the past year or so. But we’re all set to revamp and rejuvenate it with a fresh batch of bloggers. We put out a call for SpicyIP Fellows some months ago. While some of the entries were good, others were plain bad. And still others, ugly. So we’re extending the timeline again to gather more talent into our midst. If you think you have it in you to put out

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Specialised IP Courts (IV): Correcting the Copyright Board

/ By / Copyright

In a series of posts, I reflected on the desirability or otherwise of specialised IP adjudication in India. Previous posts dealt with the woeful history of the IPAB and the new kid on the specialised block (the commercial courts). Though, on a closer investigation, one might argue that the concept of a commercial court/bench predates this New Act, having  existed informally at some of the high courts, at the discretion and pleasure of the reigning Chief justice who simply allocated certain kinds

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Caste(ing) out Copyright Conundrums: Ambedkar, Arundhati and Compulsory Licensing

/ By / Copyright

Carrying on from our earlier post on the Doniger vs Penguin (Pulp) Controversy (again the below post had only been emailed out to SpicyIP subscribers two years ago: so reproducing it in full below, so that it’s publicly accessible): It turns out that the compulsory licensing provisions were invoked in the more recent Ambedkar controversy. I’ve put together a piece reflecting on both the Ambedkar and Doniger disputes and how compulsory licensing and at risk infringement may be one of

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The Pulp of the Penguin and Compulsory Licensing?

/ By / Copyright

Two years ago, the piece below was emailed out to our subscribers who are part of the SpicyIP google group. Unfortunately, it was never posted on the blog; am therefore doing the honours now, so that it can be accessed for posterity (or the end of the world, whichever comes earlier). (ps: In order to subscribe to SpicyIP and receive emails the moment we post on our website/blog, all you need to do is to go to the home page of

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Smoking Monkeys, Roasted Hornbill and Indian Trademark Law

/ By / Trademark

What’s the connection, you might ask? Well, you’d have to dip into a rather profound parliamentary conversation that preceded the passage of the 1999 Trademarks Act (the one that brought in the IPAB)..to get to the root of this mystery! Here goes: Title: Discussion on the Trade Marks Bill, 1999 (16:12 hrs). Mr Chairman: Hon. Minister, Shri Murasoli Maran may move the Trade Marks Bill for consideration. Time allotted is 2 hours. THE MINISTER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI MURASOLI

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Specialised Courts (III): Commercialising the High Courts?

/ By / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

This is the third part of our series on specialised courts. The first one captured the sentiments of two judicial heavyweights, one from 50 years ago (J. Rifkind), and another more recent (J. Wood). The second post highlighted our worrisome woes with the IPAB! As for the other specialised IP tribunal in India (the copyright board), the less said the better! What now? Assuming the IPAB is not desirable (at least given the current context and constraints), do we do

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Specialised IP Courts (Part II): Interrogating the IPAB

/ By / Patent, Trademark

Specialised courts are contentious creatures! The ICTSD is soon coming up with a series of papers on this and I’m doing the Indian section on this for them. I thought it timely to therefore put out some thoughts on these issues (If you’re interested in reviewing a draft version of the paper, let me know and I can email to you). So here goes: Specialised courts are often touted as offering numerous advantages over regular courts, including speedier dispute resolution,

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Specialised IP Courts (Part I): Tilting at the Citadel of Experts?

/ By / Patent

The debates on the merits or otherwise of specialised IP courts is a raging one. Imagine my delightful surprise when I chanced upon a piece penned more than 50 years ago! One of the most cutting critiques of specialist courts ever; penned in prose that is at once powerful and poetic! Old is certainly gold and it’s a pity that we don’t turn to history more often! Sample this: “Against the citadel of the expert, I tilt no quixotic lance.” What

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Accessing Ayyangar Openly: SpicyIP Teams with EBC

/ By / Patent, Trademark

Open access lies at the heart of SpicyIP’s mission to democratize the discussion around intellectual property rights. Fortunately for us, we’ve been blessed with some wonderful partners in the past. One that stands out is Eastern Book Company Pvt Ltd (EBC), a leading legal publishing house. First, they agreed (upon our request) to create a savvy searchable digital duplicate of the Ayyangar Committee Report on Patents. We uploaded it on our SpicyIP resources page, and here is the precise link for those interested

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