Author name: Sumathi Chandrasekharan

SpicyIP Tidbits: Harpic vs Domex: an Indian Water-Loo

/ By / Comparative Advertising, Trademark

Another pair of FMCG majors in India have gone to the mattresses in yet another comparative ad case (there seem to have been a spate of these of late). Reckitt & Benckiser India (R&B) has moved the Delhi High Court seeking restraint on a Domex – Hindustan Unilever (HUL) ad that has allegedly brought discredit to its own brand Harpic. The court has reserved judgement on the matter. An agency article on this case can be found in BS which […]

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SpicyIP Tidbits: 2 Kerala rice varieties get GIs

/ By / Uncategorized

GI update: The Hindu reports that two rice varieties in the Palakkad district of Kerala have been entered into the GI registry: Two unique rice varieties in the district, ‘Palakkadan matta’ and the medicinal ‘Navara rice,’ have received the Geographical Indication Registry of Intellectual Property India right under the Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999…. Two varieties of Navara, the medicinal rice used in Ayurveda treatment, have secured registration. They are: black glumed and golden yellow glumed

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SpicyIP Tidbits: SC refuses to grant Ranbaxy relief in comparative ad case

/ By / Comparative Advertising, Trademark

The Supreme Court refused to stay a Gujarat High Court decision restraining Ranbaxy from airing its controversial ads directed against Paras Pharma’s ‘Moov’ brand. BS has picked up an agency report on this here. The Supreme Court today refused to give any relief to pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories that is seeking permission to air its advertisement which allegedly disparaged “Moov”, the pain reliever brand belonging to its rival group Paras Pharmaceuticals. The Gujarat High Court, while allowing Ahmedabad-based Paras’ appeal,

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Cheap home movies: the death is nigh?

/ By / Copyright

A year or so of the Indian home entertainment market going into disarray after Moser Baer’s (MB) price cuts, this TOI market report suggests that cheap home videos might be unprofitable after all, and we might relive the days of expensive VCDs (and I thought they were outdated!) and DVDs… Regular readers of this blog might recall SpicyIP’s occasional references to the pricing strategy used by the optical disc major, and how its marketing tactics were not only a deterrent

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FM radio vs Music industry: a TRAIng story

/ By / Copyright

Radio junkies among SpicyIP’s readers may have been following reports of TRAI’s recent proposals closely. Among these include allowing news broadcasts on FM radio, higher FDI in radio channels, district-level FM radio licenses and more than one channel per broadcaster in a district. There’s a copyright/royalty angle to this story that has not received the attention it deserves. Soma Das at FE focuses on the issue in this piece. Das says that the proposed switch from city to district licenses

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Scramble for Scrabulous: pricing it right

/ By / Copyright, Innovation, Trademark

Some weeks ago, we had reported on the Indian-owned gaming website Scrabulous and infringement allegations by Hasbro, the rights-holders of the legendary board game Scrabble. Imminent closure of the site was predicted, and mourned in advance with much fanfare. There were hints at a possible buyout by Electronic Arts (EA), which owns the online rights for the board game, but nothing was verified. Reports now suggest that rumours of the death of Scrabulous might indeed be exaggerated, and that not

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SpicyIP Tidbits: Times Group loses domain name dispute

/ By / Trademark

In a super-quick typosquatting dispute decision, the Times of Money, the online remittance subsidiary of Indian media conglomerate Times Group, has been directed to transfer its two domain names, remit2home.com and remit2home1.com, to remithome Corporation, a U.S. to Philippines online remittance service based in Oakland, California (www.remithome.com), according to this report. The decision came from the US National Arbitration Forum, designated to deal with domain name disputes by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It ruled on

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SpicyIP Tidbits: YouTube & T-series heading for out-of-court settlement?

/ By / Copyright

This is what Nikhil Pahwa’s post at contentsutra.com seems to suggest, with the Delhi High Court having given the two parties time to settle their copyright infringement dispute. The next hearing is slated for July, but the general mood at the hearing in late-February gave the impression that the two would prefer dealing outside the confines of the Indian judicial system. Notwithstanding the irony of T-Series suing for copyright infringement, if the settlement were to go through, it would deny

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SpicyIP Tidbits: Pharma MNCs struggle in India

/ By / Patent

Three years after India’s patent law refurbishing exercise, the verdict is out: MNCs are still struggling to carve a sizeable pie of the Indian market share, while domestic pharma majors continue to rule the roost. A report by Noemie Bisserbe of the ET gives several probable reasons for Pfizer, Novartis and Merck losing market capitalisation over the past three years, including poor pricing strategies and fewer global product launches. Elsewhere, at an ET summit on the Indian pharma industry, Dr

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SpicyIP Tidbit: WIPO DG post race on, but no Indian running

/ By / Uncategorized

As WIPO Director General (DG) incumbent Kamal Idris’ controversial second six-year term runs out, the longlist of incoming candidates to head the UN IP agency has been released. Of the 15 governments represented for the post, the candidates include two present WIPO depty DGs: Australia’s Francis Gurry; and France’s Philippe Petit, Reuters reports. While Gurry is reportedly a strong contender, he has competition in the face of Mauro Masi, who is the Italian delegate for IP, and represents his government

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