Author name: Swaraj Paul Barooah

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SpicyIP Tidbit: RSC puts forward excellent US Copyright analysis; gets retracted next day

/ By / Copyright

On Nov 16th, in a little over 8 pages, Republican Study Committee (RSC) staffer Derek Khanna put forward a succinct and accurate report on US Copyright laws, its problems and some policy solutions. About 24 hours later, the RSC issued a statement saying that they were retracting the policy brief as it had been published without adequate review and failed to meet their standard for publication.  (As per wiki page, “The Republican Study Committee [RSC] is a caucus of over 170 conservative members

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (November Week 4)

/ By / Uncategorized

Another relatively quiet week in the IP world has passed us as we go deeper into holiday season. Having said that though, there have been a few very notable developments in this last week. Starting off, in what is definitely the highlight this last week, is the 5-6 hour hearing that Prof Shamnad Basheer received as an academic intervenor over a 2 day period in the much highlighted Novartis case presently before the Supreme Court. As Prashant writes, ‘His arguments (as expected)

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Part II: IPCheckups & Intellectual Ventures: What are they about?

/ By / Patent

Part I of this 2 part series covered a discussion with Matthew Rappaport, founder of IPCheckups, a patent analytics firm which is looking to uncover the super secretive patent portfolio of Intellectual Ventures, a company which may be the largest patent holder company in the world.  After speaking with Matthew, I got in touch with Nicholas Gibson, International Marketing Director of Intellectual Ventures. Specifically regarding the IPCheckups project, he gave the company’s official statement. However he was more than happy

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Part I: IPCheckups & Intellectual Ventures: What are they about?

/ By / Patent

Intellectual Ventures (IV) is a private company that is quite often heard about in the IP community.  As per it’s wiki entry, “Intellectual Ventures is a private company notable for being one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011.[1] Its business model has a focus on developing a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to companies. Publicly, it states that a major goal is to assist small inventors against corporations. In practice, much of their revenue comes

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Academia struggles to pay up as Journal prices soar!

/ By / Uncategorized

What is “Open Access”? Explained by PhD comics In yet another story headlining publishing houses, India’s top science officials have expressed concern over not being able to afford subscriptions to international science journals, budgeted at Rs 500 crores for the 5 year period covered by the 12th five-year plan (2012-2017).  The issue is concisely captured in the quote in the LiveMint article here: ““I’ll try my best to get this (budget for journals) passed, though I doubt whether the Planning Commission

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First sale doctrine under threat in US

/ By / Copyright

image from here While Hurricane Sandy has shut down most of the east coast of US, one of the only official buildings still open in Washington DC on Monday was the Supreme Court, as they heard arguments in the Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons case, a case revolving around the extent of ‘protection’ that copyright owners should get.  Textbook prices, it appears, are a problem world over. It makes sense. Without getting into whether it is good policy or

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IP in the multiverse: Law of Superheroes

/ By / Uncategorized

The leading American patent law blog, Patently O, reminds us that even serious law folk can have a lighter side once in a while (though not often enough, I would say). James Dailey and Ryan Davidson, bloggers of Law and the Multiverse, have turned their blog into a book “Law of Superheroes” that will be a delight to all comic-geek lawyers. As excerpted from Patently O:  (T)he book answers many IP questions that may have vexed comic book readers: Does Batman’s

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Guest Post: Bayer-Natco decision TRIPS Compliant?

/ By / Uncategorized

The Bayer-Natco decision broke ground as the first compulsory license earlier this year, and last month Bayer’s appeal was dismissed by the IPAB. Dr Enrico Bonadio sent us a commentary he published in the current issue of the European Intellectual Property Review, questioning the TRIPs compliancy of the ruling. Dr Bonadio is a lecturer of IP and EU law at The City Law School University, London and was practicing as an IP attorney in top tier international firms for several years. His

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Defensive Patent Licensing: A way out of the Patent Quagmire?

/ By / Patent

[Warning: Long post that mostly reviews a paper describing a type of license which may reduce unnecessary patent litigation as well as promote an ‘open access’ approach. Actual review starts from below the dotted line. ] Who would’ve thought patent-wars could have become a topic of discussion amongst even those with traditionally no interest in ‘lawyery stuff’! Good or bad, one side effect that the Apple-Samsung fiasco has had, has been to turn the public’s attention span towards the topic

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India signs Nagoya protocol ahead of Hyderabad CBD meet

/ By / Biological Diversity

GoI yesterday announced that the Union Cabinet had approved the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, which India had signed in May, 2011. The Nagoya Protocol, as we’ve written before was a step in the right direction, but a very small one. India, along with other countries like Brazil, is considered to be ‘mega-diverse’ and the Nagoya Protocol is expected to benefit such countries the most – or more correctly, to protect these countries which are most

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