Swaraj Paul Barooah

As recently announced, we have opened our 4th annual SpicyIP Fellowship series and are now accepting applications. [Click here to see how to apply]. Our first application this year comes from Rahul Bajaj, a very enterprising 4th year student from the University of Nagpur, where he looks at the current status of the Marrakesh Treaty. The Marrakesh Treaty adopted back in July, 2013 by 64 countries, and at the time hailed as a significant step towards increasing accessibility for the print-disabled, has…

Drug Regulation Patent

Guest Post: “Martin Shkreli: The Man of the (Pharma) Year 2015”

by Swaraj Paul Barooah January 15, 2016

1 Comment

I’m very happy to bring you a guest post by a dear friend of the blog, Mr Zakir Thomas, on the entrepreneur who ironically may have managed to bring more scrutiny on the out-of-control circus that drug pricing is, than health activists have managed in years of trying! Yes, we’re talking about the infamous Martin Shkreli. Readers may remember that I had voiced a similar sentiment in my piece titled ‘The Good that Martin Shkreli has done“. In this piece, Zakir Thomas takes up…

Copyright issues in Roche v. Cipla?

by Swaraj Paul Barooah December 1, 2015

2 Comments

It turns out that aside from the myriad patent law issues involved in last week’s Roche v Cipla decision (see Rupali’s posts here: Part 1, Part 2), there may be some copyright considerations as well! It appears that paras 4 to 37 of the judgement are nearly identical to a 2013 note written in the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property by Shwetasree Majumdar (co-founder of Fidus Law Chambers, also one of our former bloggers) and Eashan Ghosh (of S. Majumdar…

Guest Post: The National IP Policy which is generic, obvious and lacking in originality

by Swaraj Paul Barooah October 13, 2015

7 Comments

Hot on the heels of the alleged leaked final draft of the National IP Policy that I posted about this morning, Prashant Reddy comes out with a scathing commentary on it. Without further ado, let’s get straight to it! The National IP Policy which is generic, obvious and lacking in originality Author: Prashant Reddy There’s been a mistake. The link that Swaraj provided in his previous post on the alleged final draft of the National IP policy (leaked by another blog) took…

Final IP Policy draft leaked!

by Swaraj Paul Barooah October 13, 2015

5 Comments

[15/10/2015 Update: As reported by LiveMint — DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant clarifies that this is not the final policy, only the final draft as submitted by the IP Think Tank. He says that the Government will make the final policy and it’ll be announced in 30-45 days. Presumably this means that internally comments are being made on the final think tank draft. It’ll be interesting to see what changes are made by the Government on this final draft by the…

Innovation

Creation of “Linux for Drugs” gets support from Tata Trusts

by Swaraj Paul Barooah September 29, 2015

1 Comment

In what could turn out to be quite a significant development for pharma innovation combined with affordable medicines, Tata Trusts have announced that they will support the creation of the Open Source Pharmaceutical Foundation (OSPF), with operations commencing later this year, under the leadership of Mr Jaykumar Menon, Dr Tanjore Balganesh, Mr Bernard Munos and Dr Mathew Todd. As described, “OSPF seeks to support an alternative comprehensive, open source pharmaceutical innovation model driven by principles of openness, patient needs, and affordability.”…

Others

Youth Workshop on IP, Public Health and Access to Medicines

by Swaraj Paul Barooah September 28, 2015

The good that Martin Shkreli has done

by Swaraj Paul Barooah September 24, 2015

1 Comment

As many of our readers may have heard by now, Martin Shkreli, ex-hedge fund manager and current founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals is currently in the eye of a torrid storm of anger after he increased the price of Daraprim overnight from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. This 5500% increase came within 2 months of acquiring the rights to the drug from Impax laboratories. Daraprim is a treatment for toxoplasmosis, which affects people whose immune systems have been weakened by chemotherapy,…

Patent

New CRI Guidelines Seem to be a Result of Patent Office Overreach

by Swaraj Paul Barooah September 23, 2015

4 Comments

Troubling times lie ahead for the Indian IT sector as the recently released Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions seem to have opened the backdoor to software patenting. While the intention of the Patent Office in releasing these Guidelines may have simply been to help foster some clarity and uniformity in patent office practice, the language of the Guidelines paves the way for some unexpected policy changes. Several policy think tanks including iSpirt, Software Freedom Law Centre, Centre for Internet and Society, etc have expressed…

Prashant Reddy { Hi Anon, I agree - I hope some IP lawyers do bring the issue to the notice of the DIPP or the DoPT before the Warrants of Appointments... }
Prashant Reddy { THank you Vidyut - I understand the points that you are making now. Regarding the first point - the old provisions of the TRade Mark Act pertaining to... }
{ Dear Prashant When section process is complete before the notification of new rules, how the appointment can be made under new rules which have been substantially changes with... }
Vidyut Agarwal { Dear Prashant I think though I have written elaborate comments explaining in detail but I explain here again for your convenience 1. See the DIPP advertisement it has... }
Prashant Reddy { Sorry Vidyut - could not quite understand the point you are trying to make. If these selections were made under the 2017 Rules, the warrant of appointment cannot... }

De-Coding Indian Intellectual Property Law

Swaraj Paul Barooah

Latest RCEP IP Chapter leak reveals more cause for worry

Guest Post: Translating the Miracle of Marrakesh into Concrete Action – the Journey So Far

Guest Post: “Martin Shkreli: The Man of the (Pharma) Year 2015”

Copyright issues in Roche v. Cipla?

Guest Post: The National IP Policy which is generic, obvious and lacking in originality

Final IP Policy draft leaked!

Creation of “Linux for Drugs” gets support from Tata Trusts

Youth Workshop on IP, Public Health and Access to Medicines

The good that Martin Shkreli has done

New CRI Guidelines Seem to be a Result of Patent Office Overreach