Swaraj Paul Barooah

US media giants, Warner Bros, have warned Bollywood against any attempts at remaking one of their latest hits “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” through a public notice in the Times of India newspaper and various Trade Magazines. “Recent press reports have indicated that certain parties are in the process of producing a film in Hindi based upon the aforementioned film,”A lawsuit will be slapped on anyone producing a film “either in English or Hindi or other language, having a…

A few updates on Global IP

by Swaraj Paul Barooah April 1, 2009

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Seizures on Drug Consignments At the recent WTO TRIPS meeting, India and Brazil, along with 9 other developing countries strongly criticised the EU for its attitude towards generic medicines in transit between developing countries. On 26th of March, Indian officials said that they will be ready to drag Brussels to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if they do not change their stance on allowing Indian drugs transit through EU customs even after their bilateral negotiations. In previous posts, we have…

Patent

Trade in Generics suffer more Seizures

by Swaraj Paul Barooah March 18, 2009

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The latest addition to the rather questionable series of seizures by Dutch officials were a consignment of HIV/AIDS medicines by Aurobindo Pharma Ltd meant for use in Nigeria. The purchase, by the Clinton Foundation through a UN Agency, UNITAID, is the 6th incident of an export by an Indian drug firm being seized in transit in Europe for shipments meant for non-European markets. The grounds on which they were allegedly seized are that they contained counterfeit goods. UNITAID protested sharply…

Microsoft being FAT headed?

by Swaraj Paul Barooah March 6, 2009

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Hot off the heels of Bilski, there’s a new interesting, (though confusing) development in the software patent world. There has been a long-standing tension between the open source community and Microsoft, especially after Microsoft previously claimed the Linux and other open-source programmes violated more than 200 of its software patents. After years of threatening action over allegedly infringing elements of Linux, the open-source operating system, Microsoft has finally decided to approach U.S. District court in this regard. Microsoft claims 8…

Follow up on ACTA

by Swaraj Paul Barooah February 20, 2009

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Readers will remember a secretive ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) – a proposed multi-lateral agreement with the supposed aim of fighting the growing trade of counterfeited and pirated goods world over. (I say ‘supposed’ because details of what’s actually going on in the discussion of an international agreement, which will have a large effect on most countries of the world, haven’t officially been released) The countries involved in the negotiation of its terms and provisions are USA, the EU, Japan, Canada…

Patent Publication

‘Patent Agent Examination’ book released

by Swaraj Paul Barooah February 2, 2009

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Sheetal Chopra and Akash Taneja have released their book “Patent Agent Examination” which aims at providing an overview of the patents system. For one to become a registered patent agent in India, one needs to pass the India patent agent examination and this book aims at providing the required study material for taking this examination. Sheetal Chopra is a registered patent agent who is currently serving as Senior Assistant Director in the IPR Division of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers…

Extensions of Copyrights?

by Swaraj Paul Barooah January 15, 2009

7 Comments

The starting of this year also marked the end of the designated period of copyright protection over Mahatma Gandhi’s works. The Copyright Act provides for a period of 60 calendar years of copyright protection after the life of the author. The holders of the copyright, Navajivan Trust have decided not to ask for an extension of the copyright. “If you consider the spirit of Gandhian thought, one should not ask for such extension. And we have considered this issue and…

The IGF and Open Standards

by Swaraj Paul Barooah December 21, 2008

Prelim report points to anti-competitive practices in EU’s pharma industry.

by Swaraj Paul Barooah December 6, 2008

On the Mumbai attacks

by Swaraj Paul Barooah November 28, 2008