Category Archives: Innovation

Innovation Patent

Patenting Blockchain Services in USA and India

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Blockchain, initially introduced as a part of the Bitcoin currency, has now proven to be the new game-changer technology in several industries, with big corporations using it for various customer-friendly services such as cross-border payment systems, electronic shipping platforms, portable health records etc. Blockchains act as databases that store records for every transaction conducted and which are distributed, indestructible, decentralized, peer-to-peer and independently verifiable in nature. Controversies arise, however, when companies seek to patent their blockchain based services. Blockchain patents…


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Innovation

Global Innovation Index: General Deconstruction and Critique

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In October 2017, I posted a brief report on the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2017 (10th edition). Over the course of the ensuing write-up, I have attempted to provide a more general review of the GII, albeit basing most viewpoints on recent reports (including the 2017 report). The objective is to acquire a better understanding of (a) the process behind such indices, (b) the inherent subjectivity and also, (c) take note of a few limitations of the GII. The GII…


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Innovation Patent

Creative Destruction at it’s Best: The Death of Manual Scavenging?

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In a provocative address last year at IDIA’s annual conference, Magsaysay Award winner, Dr Bezwada Wilson rhetorically asked: How is it that we managed to send a mission (Mangalyaan) to Mars? And yet, for all our technological prowess, we still have not figured out a way to end manual scavenging! A dastardly practice with deep roots in India’s caste hierarchy and one that continues to haunt us to this day…with lower caste communities inflicted with this bountiful burden of cleaning…


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Innovation Others Patent

And the Wind Invented the Windmill

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We are pleased to bring to you a guest post by Achille Forler, Advisor to the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS). After graduating in Graphic Arts, Achille studied Indian Culture (M.A.) and Sanskrit (Ph.D.). He has 35 years of experience in the creative industries. Founder-director of a cultural centre in the 1980s, he was Attaché for Cultural Industries in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1990-94). He co-organised the first Asia-Europe Symposium on Cultural Industries, November 1995 in Goa. Achille…


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Innovation Patent

Are Patents Property: India vs United States

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In a recent brief filed before the United States Supreme Court, the US government argued that patents are not property! For those not in the know, this relates to a monumental constitutional challenge (Oil States Energy vs Green’s Energy Group) to a proceeding at the US patent office called the Inter-Partes Review (IPR), where third parties can contest the grant of a patent. A bit similar to our post grant opposition proceeding. Under US law, you cannot divest someone of…


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Innovation

India’s Performance in the Global Innovation Index 2017

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INTRODUCTION In a couple of weeks, I shall be posting a detailed analysis of the methodology employed by the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2017 Report. But prior to that, I felt it would be beneficial to provide readers with a brief synopsis of India’s performance in the said report. Report is accessible here. Over the course of this post, I intend to cover the following: Basic Data Regarding The GII India’s Performance In Isolation India’s Performance in Comparison to the…


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Copyright Innovation

Driving Them Up The (Pay)Wall – Sci-Hub and the Disruption of the Academic Publishing Industry

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Elsevier, one of the world’s largest publishing houses, has quite a hallowed history. Founded in 1880, it has today transformed itself from a small Dutch publisher of classical scholarship into a multi-billion dollar enterprise, controlling access to over 2,000 scientific and research journals and with some of the highest profits among any industry. Sci-Hub, a free, online, tool, has an admittedly humbler past. Started in 2011 by Kazakh student Alexandra Elbakyan, the project has no significant financial backing, its management is virtually…


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Copyright Innovation Overlaps in IP

Open/Secret – Assessing India’s Commitment to Open Data

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Image from here   The ‘Digital India’ slogan has not been enough to pull the government out of its digital data doldrums. India’s rank in the Global Open Data Index, which ranks countries on openness across various sets of government data, dropped 15 places to No. 32 between 2015 and 2016. While some gains have been made in the implementation of the data.gov.in portal under the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (“NDSAP”), these are fledgling in relation to the…


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Innovation Patent

DIPP forgets about NIIPM & Indian law firms, signs deal with WIPO

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Earlier this month, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced that it had signed a deal with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to establish Technology and Innovation Support Centres (TISC) in India. According to the press release put out by the DIPP, the TISCs are meant to provide innovators in developing countries with high quality technology, information and related services to help them create, protect and manage their intellectual property. As per the same press release, once…


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Copyright Innovation

You Wouldn’t Stream a Car – What Netflix’s Refusal to Bow to Pirates Means for Digital Piracy

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On April 28, 2017, a hacker/s called ‘thedarkoverlord’ managed to exploit a weak point in Netflix’s security, and hijacked a copy of the first 10 episodes of its hugely popular original series Orange Is the New Black, threatening to release these episodes to the public unless Netflix agreed to pay an unspecified ransom amount. Given that each episode costs an estimated 4 Million USD to produce, one would assume that they would be anxious, to say the least, to protect…


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