Category Archives: Overlaps in IP

Copyright Overlaps in IP Trademark

Special 301 Report 2021: Copyrights, Enforcement, and the Same Old Complaints

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The Office of the United States Trade Representative (‘USTR’) recently released its Annual Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property Protection (‘Report’). To borrow Swaraj’s description of an earlier Report, the Special 301 Report “is a unilateral measure taken by the USTR which essentially ranks countries according to how much the US appreciates their IP regimes, and this is used as a kind of [political] ‘shaming’ mechanism to coerce countries into ‘strengthening’ their IP regimes to match the TRIPS-plus standards that…


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COVID-19 Data Exclusivity Drug Regulation Innovation Overlaps in IP Trade Secret

Earning Royalties off Covaxin While Demanding IP Waiver at the WTO: Saviour on the Streets, Hypocrite in the Sheets

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A frontline worker setting fire to funeral pyres at a cremation site.

As news broke out on May 3, 20201 regarding the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) earning royalties out of every dose of Covaxin sold, many were quick to chide the government for embarrassing itself by profiting off vaccines sold in its own country while seeking a waiver of all IPRs on patents, copyright, industrial design and undisclosed information pertaining to vaccines for Covid-19 (covered previously on the blog here, here and here) at the WTO. In this post, I focus on the differential…


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COVID-19 Drug Regulation Others Overlaps in IP Patent Trade Secret

Intellectual Property Rights in Covaxin – Part 2 (IP Ownership in Publicly Funded Research)

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This post was coauthored by Swaraj Paul Barooah and myself. In part I of this post, Anik and I argued that the government should waive the IPR in Covaxin in order to ensure that the vaccine can be rapidly accessed by the public. In Part II of this post, Swaraj and I analyse the broader issue of IP ownership in outcomes of publicly funded research. Part III explores opacity surrounding the clinical trial data generated during the Covaxin trial, which…


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Copyright Design Overlaps in IP Trademark

Protection of Jewellery: A Combination of Trademark, Design and Copyright Law? – Part I

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The issue of IP protection of jewellery has hardly been discussed or adjudicated upon in India. Generally, it is understood that the sketch of the jewellery design can be protected as artistic work under copyright law, while the actual appearance of the jewellery, such as the configuration, pattern can be protected under design law. But, it’s more complicated than that. There are many questions without clear answers, such as, whether jewellery is protectable under copyright or design law in India,…


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Copyright COVID-19 Overlaps in IP Patent Trade Secret

Wishful Thinking? Analyzing India and South Africa’s Joint Statement to Waive Key Provisions of TRIPS – Part I

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On 2nd October, 2020, India and South Africa issued a joint statement before the WTO TRIPS Council, with a request to waive “the implementation, application and enforcement of Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19.” This waiver, annexed with a draft decision for the WTO General Council, was requested to ensure that IPRs do not encumber the access to affordable medicines or R&D, manufacturing and…


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Copyright Overlaps in IP Privacy

Tattoos: The Tussle between Copyright and Publicity Rights

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The world’s attention was first drawn to the copyrightability of tattoos when Victor Whitmill, the artist behind Mike Tyson’s face tattoo, sued Warner Bros for an imitative tattoo worn by an actor in Hangover II. Since then, I find that there has been a raging discussion regarding tattoo artists’ copyright over their tattoos, including issues like fixation, ownership and fair use. This post does not focus on these questions of copyrightability. Instead, it develops upon an important point raised by…


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Overlaps in IP Patent Trade Secret

Can Patents and Trade Secrets Co-exist? : Delhi High Court Answers in the Negative

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We’re pleased to bring to you a post by Aditya Gupta on the Delhi High Court’s recent decision on the interplay between trade secrets and patents. Aditya is an attorney at Ira Law. He graduated from National Law University, Jodhpur and then pursued a master’s in law from Harvard Law School. Before co-founding Ira Law, he was part of another law firm for 7 years and then an associate at the chambers of Mr. Amit Sibal. Can Patents and Trade…


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Copyright Overlaps in IP

Piracy, Privacy and Procurement: What Internet and Software Associations Had to Say About India to the USTR

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Following up on Prashant’s detailed coverage of certain commercial associations making representations to the US Trade Representative on its Special 301 Report, I looked into the representations made by prominent software and internet industry associations. Below, I summarise the India-specific recommendations of the following bodies – the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Internet Association and the International Intellectual Property Association (IIPA). India Continues to be a ‘Piracy Priority’ for the Special 301 Lobbies The business associations had little love for India…


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Overlaps in IP

WIPO Public Consultation on AI and Intellectual Property

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The World Intellectual Property Organisation has called for public comments as part of its process to develop a policy on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Rights. The call is available here. The call is concurrent with the release of WIPO’s issues paper where it has outlined the following core issues concerning the relationships between AI and IP: (a) Patents (b) Copyright (c) Data (d) Designs (e) Technology Gap and Capacity Building and; (f) Accountability for IP Administrative Decisions. Submissions are…


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Overlaps in IP Privacy

Just (Let) Google (Do) It: Updates on the Right to Be Forgotten from the European Union

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In two significant judgements made on September 24, 2019, the top court of the European Union, the CJEU, has deliberated upon the scope of the delisting and de-indexing requirements (otherwise known as the Right to Be Forgotten (‘RTBF’)) to be followed by search engine operators under the EU’s data protection laws, including the Data Protection Directive as well as the more recent General Data Protection Regulation. In Google v CNIL, the Court has held that EU law does not require…


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