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…
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…
Shogun Organics Limited v. Gauri Hari and Others is a curious case concerning burden of proof and an apparent conflict between the Patents Act, 1970 and the Insecticides Act, 1968. Facts Shogun Organics Limited (plaintiff) filed a suit seeking a permanent injunction to restrain the defendants from infringing its process patent. The patent relates to the manufacturing of d-trans Allethrin (an active ingredient in mosquito repellants). Shogun had also obtained an ‘original’ registration for the manufacture of this product under the…
In a recent post, Prashant took issue with the IPA’s contention that the Indian governments’ latest move to extend the moratorium for state drug regulatory approvals from 4 years to 10 years results in a long and damaging data exclusivity. Who is right? And who is wrong? Once one begins to trudge down this rabbit hole in search of answers, one realises that the alleged data exclusivity norm is the least of our worries. We have a far more deadly…
In a report published yesterday in the Bombay edition of the Times of India it has been alleged that the government is proposing a rule change to the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 to introduce: “a form of ‘data exclusivity’, a provision which will potentially give protection to Big Pharma, thereby delaying generic competition and hence impacting access and affordability of drugs.” The source of this information as per the news report is D.G. Shah, the spokesperson of the Indian Pharmaceutical…
In this guest post, Prashant Reddy reflects on the major decisions by Justice Manmohan Singh of the Delhi High Court in the field of intellectual property law and on the larger question of criteria for appointment of persons to the position of Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board. Warning: Very long post ahead. Title: A review of Justice Manmohan Singh’s judgments Author: Prashant Reddy As reported by Shamnad recently, the grapevine has it that Justice Manmohan Singh of the…
In part 1 of my analysis, I offered a brief summary of the Delhi High Court’s judgment imposing strict conditions on the sale of the biosimilar version of Roche’s breast cancer drug, Trastuzumab, by Biocon and Mylan. Before I delve into the findings of the single judge, I should point out that, as one of the commenters to my previous article noted, the decision has been stayed by a Division Bench and the matter is listed to be next heard…
In an order that is likely to have wide-ranging ramifications on the biomedicine industry, the Delhi High Court on Monday (25th April) imposed some conditions on the sale of the biosimilar version of Roche’s breast cancer drug, Trastuzumab, by Biocon and Mylan. The decision, clocking in at 227 pages, discusses a number of profoundly important issues such as data exclusivity, patent linkage, norms to be followed for patient safety and the rights of patentees after the expiry of their patent….
Last night, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) managed to leak yet another updated version of the IP chapter of the secretive RCEP negotiations. The October 2015 version is now available on their site here. We had written on an earlier (June, 2015) draft that KEI had leaked here. As per Wikipedia, this is the 12th round of negotiations, and one more round of negotiation has happened (Feb, 2016) since this Oct 2015 draft. There are an expected 14 rounds scheduled, with the last one in September, 2016. An…
In an article published on 16th November, 2015 in the Wire, I have analysed the Patent section of the Intellectual Property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty, a regional free trade agreement involving the US and 11 other countries and 40% of the world GDP that was released earlier this month. Negotiated in secret, the Treaty has been controversial for adopting TRIP plus standards in IP, threatening internet freedom, endangering the rights of labour, health and the environment, and, largely furthering…