Thematic Highlight Adarsh wrote a two-part post on the various misunderstandings surrounding the Plant Varieties Act (“PPV Act“). In the first part of the post, he focussed on the Public Notice 01/2019 (“Notice“) published in May 2019, which created a compound system for seeking registration of ‘hybrids’ and ‘parental lines’. He points out that the Notice is ultra vires since the Notice has been issued under Section 20 of the PPV Act, which is simply the provision empowering the PPV Authority to examine…

Topical Highlight Prashant wrote a post on an order passed by the Delhi HC concerning the marketing of a biosimilar of the breast cancer drug Herceptin by Reliance Life Sciences. Genentech, which owned the erstwhile patent for Herceptin, filed a suit against Reliance claiming that their drug did not comply with Guidelines for Biosimilars and hence could not claim to be as efficacious as the drug sold under the Herceptin brand. In this appeal, the Delhi HC overturned the decision…

Thematic Highlight  In her first submission, fellowship applicant Akanshha Agrawal wrote on the free speech, morality and trademark law debate in light of the recent Iancu v Brunetti decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. She discussed the implications of the decision to strike down the ground of immorality to refuse trademark registration, including concerns overuse of racial slurs in trademarks. She also noted the use of ‘Urban Dictionary’ as evidence in the case. In the next part…

In a guest post, Karan Dhalla argues that Tips Industries v Wynk Music, which held that the statutory licensing scheme under Section 31D of the Copyright Act 1957, was wrongly decided for three reasons. First, he suggests that Section 31D does not discriminate between different mediums of broadcast because both Section 31D(1) and Section 2(dd) are clear and unambiguous, and sweeping in their scope. Second, he posits that Section 31D(1) is the operative portion of the provision, and the remaining…