Category Archives: Innovation

Innovation

Informal innovation: The re-emergence of ‘informal’ washing machines


A topic close to this blog’s heart – informal innovation, recently made headlines. The Prime Minister of the UK awarded Navjot Sawhney with the Points of Light Award for his hand-cranked washing machines. This award recognises volunteers, charity leaders and community champions. Navjot Sawhney designed washing machines that are cranked by hand and do not use any electricity. Just like hand-churned  ice-creams, clothes are hand-churned in a tub, and come out clean. As per interviews given by Sawhney, the driving…


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Innovation Patent

From Creating Patent Ecosystem to Building National Innovation System for Industrial Growth


We are pleased to bring to you a guest post by Prof. (Dr.) Ruchi Sharma. Dr. Ruchi Sharma is a Professor of Economics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Indore. Her research area is the Economics of Innovation with specific focus on R&D, Patent Policy, and Technology Transfer (FDI and Licensing). This post focuses on the need to facilitate data access by IPO for the betterment of the national innovation system. This is in view of…


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Copyright Innovation Others Overlaps in IP

Announcing the Winners of the 3rd Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on IP Law!


A picture of Prof Shamnad Basheer

We are very happy to announce the results of the 3rd Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on IP Law! The annual essay competition was earlier announced on 14 May 2022,on the occasion of Shamnad‘s 46th birth anniversary. Like previous years, we kept the topic selection open to participants – asking them to choose any topic they wanted so long as it related to IP. And encouraged participants to draw inspiration from Shamnad’s scholarship. We received several excellent submissions across a various…


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Drug Regulation Innovation Others

AI/ML Medical Devices, Regulation and Sunrise in the West


Policy makers have often been caught off guard with new age technology. Technology emerges and evolves rapidly and regulations are slow to catch up. This cat and mouse game continues with another fast emerging and disruptive technology – AI / ML based medical devices. The US and EU are seeing waves of regulatory and policy level curiosity in AL / ML medical devices. The timing for these interventions also seems right. While many devices have been launched, this technology is…


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Innovation Patent

How Much For That IP System? South Centre Report Suggests Developing Countries Pay Quite the Price


In the discussions around IP, trade and innovation, it has often been pointed out that least developed countries and developing countries are frequently the net importers of technologies, while the developed countries tend to be net exporters of technologies. This is a point that is especially relevant when discussing the problems with ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to globally harmonized IP regimes (see for example, this post on a Report on Patent Exclusions). An interesting new report (available here) published by South Centre…


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Innovation Patent Sponsored

[Sponsored] Short Course on ‘Pharmaceuticals and IP’ by British Institute of International and Comparative Law [March 4 – May 13]


We’re pleased to inform you that The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) is offering a short course on ‘Pharmaceuticals and Intellectual Property’ from 4th March 4 to 13th May, 2022. For further details, please see their announcement below. Short course: Pharmaceuticals and Intellectual Property 10 Sessions: 4 March – 13 May 2022 The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) is delighted to announce a new short course entitled: ‘Pharmaceuticals and Intellectual Property’. This is a…


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Innovation Sponsored

[Sponsored] LexisNexis recognizes the world’s outperforming companies with its “Innovation Momentum 2022: The Global Top 100” report


We’re pleased to inform you that LexisNexis has released its inaugural ‘Innovation Momentum 2022: The Global Top 100’ report. For further details, please see their announcement below: LexisNexis recognizes the world’s outperforming companies with its “Innovation Momentum 2022: The Global Top 100” report The first patent-based report to measure short-term innovation momentum, highlighting innovators with exceptional technological relevance for the future. To uncover forward-thinking patent development and spotlight true technological contemporaries across industries, LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions has released its inaugural…


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COVID-19 Event Innovation Patent

Conference: Intellectual Property, COVID-19, and the Next Pandemic: Diagnosing Problems, Developing Cures


poster for conference

We’re pleased to inform our readers of a very interesting looking international conference coming up in a few days, on Covid and IP protection. The conference is on 5th-6th November and it is free to attend. The registration page is here. As described by the organisers: The conference aims at sharing ideas on how we can use intellectual property as a tool for promoting not just innovation but also equitable distribution of life saving drugs in low and middle-income nations….


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Drug Regulation Innovation

Drug Price Controls in the US: Same, Same but Different?


In 2017, when India introduced price controls on coronary stents, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) had requested the Prime Minister to not extend price controls to additional medical devices. When India refused to heed to the request, amongst other things, the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers reported the measure of price capping to be without a sense of differentiation between newer and older products (here, p. 235), India’s eligibility for US’ Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)…


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Copyright COVID-19 Drug Regulation Innovation Patent Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (August 23 – 29)


Topical Highlight Sun Pharma v. Cipla: Madras HC Rejects COVID as an Excuse for Passing Off In this guest post, Kedar Ganesh Dhargalkar analyses the recent case of Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. v. Cipla Ltd., and the socio-legal opportunism of the defendants’ arguments for condonable trademark infringement, set in the backdrop of the ongoing global pandemic. The Defendant Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. allegedly infringed the Plaintiff Cipla Ltd.’s copyright and registered trademark by thrusting its deceptively similar goods and flooding the…


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