Author name: Shan Kohli

Musings on Phishy Copyright Societies

/ By / Copyright

A recent incident with a Spicy IP friend in UK got us musing on one of our pet peeves on this blog, copyright collecting societies. Imagine you are an academic who has published a few books available across libraries in the UK and US. One day out of the blue you receive an email from a person claiming to be part of an organisation called Authors Registry informing you of x amount of foreign royalties owed to you which have […]

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Twenty Minutes to Copyright Infringement

/ By / Copyright

We have in the past covered innumerable instances of copyright infringement allegations brought against Bollywood movies either from major Hollywood studios or producers in the south.  To bring yourself up to speed, read about the My Cousin Vinny dispute here, the Knockout dispute here and here, the Ladies v Ricky Bahl controversy here, the Ghajni-Memento controversy here, or the Hitch-Partner dispute here.  The latest to be added to the list is UTV’s recently released mega hit Baaghi, last heard it

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The Other Mass Killing: TM Genericide

/ By / Trademark

We bring to you a guest post by Harshavardhan Ganesan on the issue of trademark genericide and what companies can do to prevent it. Our previous posts on this topic can be found here and here. Harshavardhan Ganesan is currently an LLM student at the University of California, Berkeley where he is specializing in Intellectual Property Law. The Other Mass Killing: TM Genericide Harshvardhan Ganesan Introductory Eulogy: Trademark  Genericide: The 27 club for Trademarks (“TM”). Every year, the morbidly worded

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USTR urged to clarify position on compulsory licensing of generic medicines

/ By / Patent

For those of you who were at ‘Consilence’ yesterday, it would be hard to forget the engaging and very memorable final session we had on ‘Compulsory Licensing and Compensatory Commons’. Prof. Srividya Ragavan alluded to the letter submitted to the USTR, Michael Froman, by a group of 15 (fifteen) Democrats urging the administration to clarify its position on compulsory licensing for generic medicines in Colombia. You can read the full news report here and the letter submitted here. The US and

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Blue Frog v Blu Frog: Piggybacking on Reputation

/ By / Trademark

We bring to you a tidbit that will interest regular visitors of the Blue Frog restaurant in Mumbai. The Bombay High Court recently passed an interim order in Frog Company Pvt. Ltd v. Blu Frog Kitchen & Lounge restraining a little known Belgaum based restaurant named “Blu Frog” from infringing on the trademark of the well known Mumbai restaurant, “Blue Frog”. Interestingly despite the order, Blu Frog’s Facebook page continues to be active. Justice Patel while ruling in favour of

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The Dead Wear Gucci

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

If you think material possessions are transitory, you maybe wrong, you can now own your favorite designer products in this world and the next. This interesting news article on Gucci has been doing the rounds recently. We made a passing reference to it on our weekly review as well. Gucci recently clamped down on Chinese shops selling paper versions of their products as offerings for the dead. As per Chinese tradition, relatives can appease the dead by offering items that

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Ericsson vs CCI- The Future of Indian SEP Disputes?-II

/ By / Competition Law, Patent

In this post, Swati continues her analysis of the recent decision of the Delhi High Court in Telefonaktiebolaget lm Ericsson v Competition Commission of India W.P.(C) 464/2014 & CM Nos.911/2014 & 915/2014. Can the allegations made by Micromax and Intex be construed as abuse of dominance? Micromax and Intex, both claimed that exorbitant royalty rates and unfair licensing terms proposed by Ericsson amount to a patent holdup. Further, FRAND terms have been violated by Ericsson’s opaque licence negotiations and legal

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Ericsson vs CCI- The Future of Indian SEP Disputes?-I

/ By / Competition Law, Patent

In this post, Swati Muthukumar, our Spicy IP Fellowship applicant discusses the recent judgment of the Delhi High Court in Telefonaktiebolaget lm Ericsson v Competition Commission of India W.P.(C) 464/2014 & CM Nos.911/2014 & 915/2014. We have previously blogged about the recent Delhi High Court judgment, in which the court ordered the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) to continue its investigation into Ericsson’s alleged anti-competitive practices. In this two part post, I will analyse the issues raised in the judgment

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Choco Wars: The Trademark Menace – Part II

/ By / Trademark

This is the second part of Prateek’s two part post on whether colours can be trademarked. In Part I, I had written about the problems of allowing trade marks of colours in the abstract (multiple formulations). In Part II, I am going to be writing about the concerns with allowing trade marking of colours in general. In an earlier piece on the blog, on the overruled UK High Court judgment in the Cadbury case, Ms. Basu rhetorically questioned if there was any

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Choco Wars: The Trademark Menace- Part I

/ By / Trademark

In this two part blog post Prateek Surisetti, our Spicy IP Fellowship applicant, discusses whether  companies can trademark colours. In this two part post, I will discuss the problems with allowing companies to trademark colours with very wide limits of usage through an analysis of one of the legal battles fought between the two chocolate heavy weights: Nestle and Cadbury. Essentially, Cadbury wished to register a trademark for the colour Pantone2685C (Dairy Milk’s Purple), but Nestle opposed it. Finally in 2013, after 10

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