Category Archives: Others

Copyright Geographical Indication Others Patent Plant Variety Protection Trademark

The Legality of the Appointment of the 5 Technical Members to the IPAB


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…


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Copyright Others Patent Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (December 21 – 27)


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…


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Copyright Geographical Indication Others Patent Plant Variety Protection Trademark

Supreme Court Revisits Tribunal Culture (Yet Again): Upholds Validity of 2020 Rules with Conditions


Adding to an existing trail of decisions on administration of the tribunals, the Supreme Court passed a detailed judgement in Madras High Court Bar Association v. Union of India last month, wherein it upheld the constitutional validity of the Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal and other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other Conditions of Service of Members) Rules, 2020 (or Tribunal Rules 2020). Among other things, the decision is crucial for its observation on appointment of the Chairpersons, Vice-Chairperson and Technical Members to…


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Design Others Patent Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (December 14 – 20)


Topical Highlight India on TRIPS Waiver: Will WTO pass the test of humanity? Swaraj gave us an overview of India’s statement on the on-going TRIPS Waiver proposal, delivered at the WTO TRIPS General Council Meeting held from 16th-18th December, 2020. He explains that India strongly appealed to WTO’s responsibility to respond during this time of crisis and also pointed out that COVAX and ACT-accelerator were inadequate to meet global needs. India’s statement also indirectly calls out the hypocrisy in developed…


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Copyright Geographical Indication Innovation Others Patent Trade Secret Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (December 7 – 13)


Thematic Highlight Who Gets Paid for the Music You Listen to?: Revamping Music and Copyright in India (Part I) In Part I of this 2-part guest post, Akshat Agarwal analyses the ‘incentive/compensation’ structure actually in place for artists in India as well as its consequences. He lucidly explains that artists receive only a small proportion of revenue earned by music streaming services. He then highlights a deeper issue that enables a few oligopolistic players to capitalize on their monetary privilege…


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Biological Diversity Copyright Design Others Patent Privacy Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (November 30- December 6)


Topical Highlight COVID-19 Vaccines: Patent Ownership and the Barriers to Equitable Access In this post, Adyasha conducts a thorough analysis of the vaccines developed by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford, the complex ownership status of their intellectual property, the bilateral pre-purchase deals struck with higher-income countries and their implications on the Global South. She first notes the importance of public funding for the fruition of the three vaccines upon which patent protection is being claimed by their respective owners. She then…


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Biological Diversity Others Traditional Knowledge

Enabling the Use of People’s Biodiversity Registers within Environmental Impact Assessments


This post was co-authored by Dayaar Singla and myself. Dayaar is a final year student at NALSAR University of Law. He is an editor of the Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law and the Editor-in-Chief of the Law and Other Things Blog, which Late Prof. Shamnad Basheer was an initial contributor to. In this post we look at recent changes to the creation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) as well as the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 notification to…


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Copyright Others Patent Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (November 23- 29)


Topical Highlight A Copyright Reform Agenda from a Group of Like-Minded IP Teachers In this guest post, Prof. (Dr.) N.S. Gopalakrishnan provides us an overview of the recommendations focussing on desirable public interest oriented amendments to the Copyright Act prepared by a group of ‘like minded IP teachers’. He particularly summarises four broad themes of amendments. The first set of proposed changes deal with Section 52. These include an open-ended fair dealing clause under Section 52(1)(a), expanding educational use exception…


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Others Patent

As 15 Asia Pacific Countries Sign RCEP, India Chooses to Sit Out


Last week, ten south-east Asian countries along with Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand signed the Agreement on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) making it the world’s largest trade bloc. Initially projected as the alternative to Trans Pacific Partnership, the negotiations for this free trade agreement (FTA) were underway since 2012 and after 31 rounds (as per Wikipedia), the member states finally sealed the deal four days ago via a video conference. While some reports suggest that the…


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Copyright Innovation Others Patent Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (October 26 – November 1)


Topical Highlight Mountain Dew Trademark Battle: David v. Goliath or Misapplication of Prior User Rights? In this post, Adyasha analyses the decision of the City Civil Court of Hyderabad against PepsiCo, ruling that Hyderabad-based Magfast Beverages enjoys prior user rights over ‘MOUNTAIN DEW’ (identical to PepsiCo’s mark for its citrus flavoured soda) for their packaged drinking water business. She first looks at the facts, and the history of both business’ use of these marks in detail, as well as previous…


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