Author name: Shouvik Kumar Guha

Shouvik is at present employed as a Research Associate and a Teaching Assistant at The W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He has obtained his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree from NUJS itself and is also currently pursuing his LL.M. degree from the same university. From his very year at law school, he had been attracted towards the discipline of Intellectual Property and that interest has been kindled further in course of time. The interface between IP and other disciplines such as Economics, Anti-trust Law, Human Rights, World Trade Law and the technological developments relating thereto, has especially caught his attention since then. He’s authored several papers on issues relating to IP and other legal disciplines for journals, books, magazines and conferences in national as well as international levels. He is also currently co-heading an organization called Lexbiosis, which is an endeavor meant to facilitate the collaboration between the legal industry and academia.

Dancing to the Tune of Garba and Dandiya: Gujarat High Court says "No Fair"?

/ By / Copyright

A recent decision of the Gujarat High Court has caught the attention of the SpicyIP team, which appears to be capable of sparking off a rather lively debate. The decision is the one that has been reached in the case of Devendrakumar Ramchandra Dwivedi v State of Gujarat and Others (Special Civil Application No. 9979 of 2009). This was an example of a unsuccessful public interest litigation that the Petitioner had filed, apprehending disruption of Navaratri Garba and Dandiya Mahotsav […]

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INTA Roundtable on Trademark Issues for Inbound Investors into the U.S. and E.U.

/ By / Trademark

In a move that appears to provide a promising opportunity for a lively and informed discussion on a subject that has been oft-neglected in the Indian IP scenario, the International Trademark Association (INTA) has decided to organize a roundtable conference titled ‘Trademark Issues for Inbound Investors into the U.S. and E.U. – A Comparative Perspective with India’ on October 20-22, 2009. The roundtable is certainly an attractive enabling vehicle for the participants to network and trade thoughts with their peers,

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The Indian ‘Bayh Dole’ Bill keeps stirring a hornet’s nest

/ By / Uncategorized

Recent times have seen a lot of discussion on the Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill that is at present making rounds in the Indian Parliament. The Bill, which contains provisions similar to the U.S. Bayh-Dole Act, has attracted its own share of praises and criticisms till date. The SpicyIP Team has striven in the past to bring forth the relevant aspects of the aforesaid Act, the proposed features of the said Bill as well as the

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Patent Office rejected Tenofovir: Celebrating Opporunity for Generic Manufacturers?

/ By / Uncategorized

Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF) is a drug highly recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Till date, the medicine has been mostly marketed by Indian pharmaceutical companies through a voluntary licence scheme negotiated with the California-based Gilead Sciences few years back. Before the product patent regime had been introduced in India in 2005, the country allowed local generic manufacturers to sell cheap versions of Aids drug cocktails, known as antiretrovirals. According to an article penned

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CII’s Conference on combating Counterfeiting and Piracy sparks a Lively Debate

/ By / Uncategorized

In a move that recognizes the global nature of the problems of counterfeiting and piracy and the futility of attempts on the part of individual government or body corporate to combat the same, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is on the verge of organizing an international conference on combating counterfeiting and piracy, which will be the 3rd of its kind. The early two counterparts of this conference had succeeded in increasing awareness of the aforesaid problems, encouraging the sharing

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The Purse May not Open for All: NGO’s Advocate Greater Transparency in the Functioning of WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing

/ By / Others

In November, 2008, the WHO had established an Expert Working Group on R&D Financing (EWG) for examining the existing financing and coordination of R&D and for reviewing proposals for new and innovative sources of funding to stimulate R&D related to diseases designated Type II and Type III and to identify the specific R&D needs of developing countries in relation to Type I diseases. Consisting of 24 experts and policy makers, the EWG is supposed to submit a final report to

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Manupatra Annual Essay Competition 2009

/ By / Uncategorized

Scarce few in the legal community need to be reminded of the significance that Manupatra has attained till date as the provider of invaluable service including but not confined to a comprehensive repository of legal information, case-laws and assorted matters. Since 2004, Manupatra has become involved in organizing a much-acclaimed Annual Essay Competition for law students with an aim to encourage and promote creative thinking and knowledge of legal understanding and research amongst the student community. The time has now

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MS v Linux: Sparks of the Tom Tom Fire stubbornly refuse to die

/ By / Uncategorized

In course of the last decade, every once in a while Microsoft has been known to have accused Linux of infringing one of its patents or another. Despite the said multiple claims for years that elements of the open-source operating system violate its patents, Microsoft had restricted itself till 2009 to supporting legal action against Linux (for instance, the infamous alleged funneling of money by Microsoft to SCO so as to fuel the latter’s lawsuits against IBM and other Linux-user

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Customs Authority as Copyright Watchdogs: A Welcome Initiative?

/ By / Copyright

It all started with an order dated 28.03.2008 passed by the Commissioner of Customs (Export), JNCH, Nhava Sheva, in the matter of AMI International v. Commissioner of Customs (Export), MANU/CM/0028/2009, confiscating 626 cartons of Printed Books that were being consigned from Mumbai by a company named M/s Ami International, to the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. On examination, it had been found that the books under export were not original books, but photocopies of the same (as many as 23 different

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