Author name: Swaraj Paul Barooah

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Draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Proposes Major Changes to India’s Open Access Culture

/ By / Copyright, Innovation, Others

[This post has been co-authored with Praharsh Gour] On 2/01/2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology rolled out the draft version of the proposed Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. The process to have a new policy, subsequent to the 2013 one, was in the works since May 2020 (see here for our coverage of the same). And after a claimed 4 track process of consultations and “nearly 300 rounds of consultations with more than 40,000 stakeholders well distributed in terms […]

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"The case against IP" on SSRN being charged 8$ for access

Time to More Seriously Question the Spectre of Copyright in the Realm of Education

/ By / Copyright

Several students and researchers may have noted that social media was recently abuzz with the news that SciHub and LibGen were being taken to court for copyright infringement, by Elsevier Ltd. (UK), Wiley India, Wiley Periodicals (USA), and American Chemical Society (USA). The giant publishers seem to be asking the court to grant a dynamic injunction against these ‘rogue websites’, so as to block them en masse. The case is up for hearing before the Delhi High Court tomorrow (24th

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Pic of the game Cards Against Humanity

India on TRIPS Waiver: Will WTO Pass the Test of Humanity?

/ By / Copyright, COVID-19, Design, Patent, Trade Secret

India, through its Ambassador and Permanent Representative at the WTO, delivered a short but strong statement at the WTO TRIPS General Council Meeting held between 16-18th December, 2020, on the on-going TRIPS waiver proposal. (context here for those unaware of the waiver proposal – in brief, South Africa and India proposed a waiver for the WTO TRIPS provisions that relate to, i.e., restrict, vaccines, treatment options, etc for Covid-19, for the duration of the pandemic). Pointing out that making the

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RTI on Patent Opposition Details Reveals Concerning (and Possibly Wrong?) Numbers

/ By / Patent

[This post was co-authored with Praharsh Gour.] Long time readers may remember earlier posts by Prashant (in 2017 and 2012), looking into opposition disposal and pendency rates. In a similar exercise, while trying to collate data on patent oppositions (filing, disposal and pendency rates), we looked through data available in the Annual Reports published by the Office of Controller General of Patents for the last few years. On finding that the Annual Reports for 2018-19, and 2019-20 hadn’t been published

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Meme frowning at the statement "Patent Rights devoid of socio-economic context", and smiling at the line "Patent rights part of social-bargain with public"

The Public Interest Defence, and the Public Interest Offence – What Is The Way Forward In This Pandemic?

/ By / COVID-19, Patent

[This post was co-authored by Varsha Jhavar and myself. Varsha is a 5th year student at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. She recently won the second prize for 1st Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on IP Law that was conducted by us earlier this year. She has also guest blogged for us earlier here.] On December 24th, 2019, the Delhi High Court had granted an ad-interim injunction in favour of Bristol Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland (BMS) for the infringement of patent number 247381 associated with

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Meme with a pic of James Bond, and the caption saying "Name's Bond... Security Bond"

Interim Injunctions: What’s The Damage? – Part II

/ By / Patent

[This post was co-authored with Praharsh Gour. This is part II of our two-part post on interim injunctions. You can view Part I here.] In our previous post, we summarized some of the many issues with interim injunctions in high-tech patent matters. We also pointed to an earlier suggestion of doing away with the interim phase altogether. We highlighted that aside from the possible pro-patentee bias in the grant, there is also the issue of public interest perhaps not being

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Oprah meme, with text "You get an interim, you get an interim, everyone gets an interim!"

Interim Injunctions: What’s the Damage? – A Summary

/ By / Patent

[This post has been co-authored with Praharsh Gour. His previous posts can be found here.] India’s tryst with interim injunctions in high tech patent disputes is a long, problematic one, as covered several times in this blog.  Despite all the issues pointed out, and despite courts stating that it should be used judiciously, it probably surprises few observers to see it being used too frequently. Over the course of this two part post, we will first try to provide an

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book cover of "to save everything click here"

Solutionism, Social Innovation and IP

/ By / Innovation

Back in 1970, Justice Stephen Breyer, (now of the US Supreme Court, then a professor at Harvard Law School), in contemplating the proposals to extend copyright terms, wrote an interesting article where he pointed out that the Copyright regime seemed to be based more on fear, than on fact (paywalled link). His conclusion regarding the copyright system, ended up echoing what the economist Fritz Machlup had famously said even earlier, in 1958, about the patent system – that if we

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Nationalism, Drugs and Public Interest – Remdesivir and Beyond

/ By / COVID-19, Drug Regulation, Patent

A few days ago, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that their President has struck an ‘amazing deal’ with Gilead, that ensured nearly all of Gilead’s projected production of Remdesivir for the next three months are secured by the US. “Nearly all” in this case, refers to 100% of Gilead’s projected production of Remdesivir for July, and 90% of the projected production for August and September. This is after US has already kept about 60% (940,000)

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Image showing various 'Open' related logos, with text "IP Textbooks. It's always Open Access O'Clock. Download and Enjoy"

Open Access IP Textbooks – or – Mythical IP Books and Where to Find Them

/ By / Copyright, Others, Patent, Publication, Trademark

Despite the high educational value that exists when tomes of writing are dedicated to very specific areas, textbooks are often no longer treated like the powerhouses of knowledge that they were once known to be. Especially given the plethora of other mediums over which that knowledge is now available – journal articles, niche websites, blogs, podcasts, online forums, social media, etc. The reasons for this are of course varied. In a fast evolving field like intellectual property, classic textbooks may

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