Despite the plethora of materials online, any student, researcher or professor would know that access to scholarly information is a lot more difficult than what it should be. Most of the time, if you’re serious about research, the ‘research’ journey is more about how many paywalls you can climb (legally or not so legally), as much as it is about how good the material you can find is. To get around this, many folks rely on plug-ins like UnPayWall and…
Topical Highlight Justice Prabha Sridevan on Govt’s Proposal to Shut Down IPAB and the Way Forward In this guest post, Justice (Retd.) Prabha Sridevan notes that the Government’s proposal to scrap the IPAB is a welcome change. She argues that the functioning of the IPAB makes the two ostensible reasons for tribunalisation unsustainable: expert insight and speedy justice. She argues that regular courts are also more than capable of eliciting expert opinions, citing multiple cases where this has been done. Further,…
Topical Highlight Breaking: Supreme Court Dismisses Application Seeking Extension of Justice Manmohan Singh as IPAB Chairperson Praharsh informed our readers that this week the Supreme Court dismissed the AIPPI application seeking another extension to the tenure of the incumbent IPAB Chairperson. The application for extension was a part of a writ petition which was disposed of by the court after tagging it to Madras High Court Bar Association decision. Praharsh highlights the issues taken up by the court – the laws regarding…
Thematic Highlight An Alternative to Delhi HC’s Approach on Confidentiality Clubs in InterDigital-Xiaomi SEP Dispute In this guest post, Abhilasha analyses the recent Delhi High Court decision on confidentiality clubs in InterDigital v. Xiaomi. She first lays down the background in which confidentiality clubs have originated in the Indian IP litigation. She particularly emphasises on the balancing of interests carried out by Delhi High Court in the Vestergaard judgment while creating a confidentiality club. She then analyses the decision in…
Topical Highlight Issues in Sci-Hub Case ‘A Matter of Public Importance’ In this post, Swaraj highlighted some issues that came up during the hearing of the recent litigation, involving Elsevier, Wiley, and ACS suing Sci-Hub and LibGen for copyright infringement. He observed that it was a positive step for Justice Midha of the Delhi High Court to repeatedly point out that case was ‘a matter of public importance’, and he would not want to pass any orders without hearing the various…
[This post has been co-authored with Praharsh Gour] On 2/01/2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology rolled out the draft version of the proposed Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. The process to have a new policy, subsequent to the 2013 one, was in the works since May 2020 (see here for our coverage of the same). And after a claimed 4 track process of consultations and “nearly 300 rounds of consultations with more than 40,000 stakeholders well distributed in terms…
In this post on the recent Delhi High Court order in Interdigital v. Xiaomi, I highlight how the common practice of courts granting confidentiality in commercial litigation without much reasoning does not augur well for transparency, judicial accountability and the citizens’ right to be informed of Court processes and reasoning as part of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. The Public’s Right to Know The Delhi High Court’s order…
Topical Highlight Sci-Hub and Libgen Up against Academic Publishers: A Death Knell for Access to Research? – Part I In this three-part post, Nikhil dissects the ongoing copyright litigation in the Delhi High Court by three big publishing houses, namely Elsevier, Wiley and ACM against the shadow libraries Libgen and Sci-Hub, alongwith the interpretive issues before the court. In Part I, he explains the background of the dispute and analyses the dynamic injunction plea sought by the plaintiffs. He argues that a thorough…
Prashant Reddy, one of our most prolific bloggers, is back with a guest post, questioning the legality of the appointment of the 5 Technical Members made to the IPAB earlier this year. The Legality of the Appointment of the 5 Technical Members to the IPAB Prashant Reddy Continuing from Praharsh’s earlier post on the Supreme Court’s judgment on the legality of the Tribunal Rules, 2020, I would like to briefly comment on the legality of the appointments of the 5…
Topical Highlight Time to More Seriously Question the Spectre of Copyright in the Realm of Education Swaraj reported that SciHub and LibGen were taken to court by Elsevier UK, Wiley India, Wiley Periodicals USA, and American Chemical Society for copyright infringement, seeking a dynamic injunction. He highlights several issues that are likely to gain attention regarding this dispute – the contrast between the heavy profit-making, increasingly online model of the publishers and Sci-Hub and LibGen’s complete non-profit, no charge, no…