Author name: Swaraj Paul Barooah

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Consultation Process for New Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 Begins – How to Contribute?

/ By / Innovation

The Ministry of Science and Technology recently announced the initiation of the consultation process for the new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020. Notably, the consultation process which started recently, seems to be very inclusive as it is described (more on that below). For those interested, there is a virtual town hall meeting, as the launch event for public consultations, happening later today, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm IST – more details here. Reproducing the PIB notification: “The Office […]

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Comparison of BRICS countries Public Health spending. Please contact author if you want breakdown of details

Patents for Pharmaceutical Innovation – Basic Concerns

/ By / COVID-19, Data Exclusivity, Innovation, Patent

Covid 19 seems to have done what public health activists have been crying hoarse about for years – that is, shine a bright spotlight on the various inadequacies of the public health systems around the world, and its related issues. With several public calls for letting patent rights on pharmaceuticals take a back seat vis-a-vis this pandemic, this bright spotlight has also shone on those who’ve been lobbying for ever-restrictive patent rights on pharmaceuticals. For example, as KEI has pointed

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Special 301

USTR Special 301 Review (2020) Submissions – Continued

/ By / Drug Regulation, Patent

As readers may know, the Special 301 Review is an effort by the US Trade Representative (USTR) to identify countries whose IP regimes are not conducive to US persons’ IP interests, with the stated goal of increasing bilateral attention on ‘problem areas’. This has most frequently been done through the threat of unilateral sanctions (see our posts on earlier editions of the Special 301 review here). This year’s report has come out as well – with India once again being

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Corona covid 19

Corona and IP – Looking for the Right(s) Answers

/ By / COVID-19, Data Exclusivity, Innovation, Others

The Covid 19 pandemic has now changed the way most of us are going about our day to day lives. In India, we are now on day 2 of our 21 day nation wide lock-down. In the midst of all that is going on now, Intellectual Property enthusiasts with a keen eye, would have noticed several IP related issues that have been cropping up, even if relatively under-discussed. For this current post, I thought I would do a round-up of

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Japanese light signs for proceed, caution, stop

[Updated] COVID-19 Related Adjournments at Indian Patent Office, IPAB

/ By / COVID-19, Others

[Further related adjournments have been updated on this page. If readers know of other adjournments that are not listed here, we request you to mention them in the comments below. The edits that have been included since the first posting of this include: Final Edit: 26/03/20:  Cancellation of hearings in Patent Office amid COVID19: See here All IP Offices to remain closed for 21 days:See here Last date to Register for Patent Agent Exam-2020 Extended to 15.04.2020 : See here

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3D medical depiction of coronavirus

Patent Politics in the Time of Corona

/ By / COVID-19, Data Exclusivity, Patent

The new coronavirus threat/scare seems to be increasing with every passing day. At the time of writing this, it is reported that there are 138,941 cases (of which 80,815 are in China), of which 70,727 have recovered, 57,317 in mild condition, 5,786 are serious, and 5,111 have died. India has 81 cases of which 4 have recovered and 1 person has died. The new Coronavirus, or COVID 19 as it is technically known is, is now the 7th known coronavirus (other

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graffiti saying "Secret Party, shhh"

What MoU? What Review of IP Acts?

/ By / Others

Yesterday evening, Reuters sent out a short report titled “India clears accord on intellectual property rights with U.S.” It contained the following three lines: NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to sign an initial pact on intellectual property rights with the United States, a government minister said, days ahead of a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump. The United States has long urged India to strengthen protection for intellectual property and that has been a

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US flag vs India flag

The GIPC IP Index 2020: The Misleading Saga Continues

/ By / Innovation, Others, Patent

(This post has been co-authored with Bhavik Shukla) Recently, the Global Innovation Policy Center (“GIPC”) released the 2020 edition of its international IP Index. Titled “Art of the Possible”, the report lays emphasis on a strong IP ecosystem to make the art of transformation of economies to 21st century knowledge-based economies possible. It has unfortunately continued with the same flawed indicators from the previous years. In the past, one of the authors of this post and Kartik have elaborately discussed

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Players playing table-tennis

The Ping-Ponging Paradigm of Patenting Computer Programmes in India (“Software Patenting” 1999-2020)

/ By / Patent

Patents for Computer Related Inventions (CRIs) or “Software Patents” have, unfortunately, been an evergreen issue in India, with much confusion, lobbying, changes, misunderstandings, and anything else one could imagine, playing its role at some point or the other. As Shamnad had once written – its indeed confusingly confounding! Readers may recall a recent post which discussed the Ferid Allani order. As Sandeep Rathod helpfully pointed out in the comments on that post – that patent application has once again been

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"Technically Moses is the first man to download files from the cloud using a tablet"

Looking at the Ferid Allani Order on Software Patents

/ By / Patent

Who would have thought a Tunisian citizen would end up having a couple of major impacts on the Indian IP landscape? Yet, Ferid Allani, in his quest to get a patent on a “method and device for accessing information sources and services on the web” has inadvertently done just that. Back in 2008, in the course of an appeal against the IPO’s deeming of the patent to have been abandoned, Justice Gita Mittal of the Delhi High Court, passed an

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