Category Archives: Trademark

Topical Highlight Indian Govt. Permits Manufacture of Covaxin by Haffkine Institute – But Why Not Others Too? Praharsh and Swaraj consider the recent Central Government approval of Haffkine Institute for manufacturing Covaxin, on a ‘technology transfer’ basis, for a period of one year to address the vaccine shortage in the country. They highlight that the wording of the current ‘approval’ seems to indicate that the Central Government has the rights to be able to give the permission. However, it leaves…

Drug Regulation Trademark

The Monopoly Purple – Colours, Shapes and Sizes in the Pharmaceutical World

by Swaraj Paul Barooah April 15, 2021

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Picture of Seretide Accuhaler (circular, in a pink and purple colour combination), next to its box

(This post was co-authored with Murali Neelakantan. Murali is currently Principal lawyer at Amicus. He is a dual qualified lawyer (India and UK) and among other positions, he was formerly a partner at an international law firm in London, Cipla’s first global general counsel, and Executive Director and Global General Counsel of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Murali has also been a long time friend of the blog.) While the role of patents in extending monopolies over pharmaceutical products is now widely debated,…

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 5 – 11)

by Adyasha Samal April 12, 2021

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Topical Highlights SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace In Part I, Adarsh summarizes the recent SCOTUS ruling on Google’s copying of roughly 11,500 lines of code relating to 37 software packages forming part of Sun Java API, owned by Oracle. The court renders no finding on copyrightability and has restricted itself to the question of fair use by undertaking the four-factor analysis. On ‘Nature of the…

Trademark

Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion

by SpicyIP April 10, 2021

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We’re pleased to bring you a guest post by Dr. Sunanda Bharti, analysing the position of law on registration and infringement of position trademarks. Sunanda is an Associate Professor in Law at Delhi University and has written several guest posts for the blog in the past. Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion Dr. Sunanda Bharti Recently, Tefal was in the news for being denied registration for its famous ‘red dot’ mark in the UK, which was initially claimed to…

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

by Nikhil Purohit April 9, 2021

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It is a common practice for political parties to utilise songs, either original or non-original, as part of their election campaigns. Like most other things in life though, politicians have frequently thought themselves above the law when it comes to asking for permissions for using copyrighted songs! It has led to protests in countries such as the United States by artists against political usage of their music. A prominent controversy involving Rihanna’s objection to Donald Trump using her songs at…

The Compilation of the Decade of SpicyIP Posts on IPAB

by Swaraj Paul Barooah April 8, 2021

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[Co-authored/compiled with Praharsh Gour] Earlier this week, Praharsh blogged about the IPAB finally being scrapped through an ordinance, with its powers / duties transferred to High Courts and Commercial courts (for copyright matters). Long time readers may recall that Prof Shamnad Basheer, after pointing out various issues with it, had first started asking for the IPAB to be shut down 11 years ago, in this post titled “Pondering the legal competence of the IPAB”. Note the following lines – more…

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021

by Praharsh Gour April 5, 2021

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IPAB has been in the eye of the storm since its inception. While there are ardent believers of the institution (See here and here), there are equally strong arguments by the ones against it (few of them advanced by the former Chairperson of the institution itself!) (See here here and here). A few months ago, the Executive seemingly laid the debate to rest by introducing the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Bill 2021, proposing to scrap IPAB. However,…

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 29 – April 4)

by Anupriya Dhonchak April 5, 2021

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Topical Highlight Intellectual Property Rights in Covaxin – Part 2 (IP Ownership in Publicly Funded Research) In Part II of this post, Anupriya and Swaraj analyse the broader issue of IP ownership in outcomes of publicly funded research. They note that the government’s retention of IPR in Covaxin and the novel mRNA vaccine in the pipeline, would enable it to be in a position to share them with the rest of the developing world. They examine the patchwork of rules,…

Trademark

Why the Case of Hero Electric vs. Lectro E-Mobility Actually Demystifies the Arbitrability of IP Disputes

by SpicyIP March 29, 2021

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pic of the word arbitration on a keyboard

Last week we had a guest post by Lokesh Vyas that looked into the case of Hero Electrics v Lectro E-Mobility, wherein the order, holding the dispute to be arbitrable, was critiqued for inadequately clarifying the difference between IP disputes that can be arbitrated versus those that cannot. We’re pleased to bring our readers another guest post today that responds to Lokesh’s post. Today’s post, by Ajeeth Srinivas. K and Ishika Ray Chaudhuri, disagrees with the earlier critique, and argues…

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 22 – 28)

by Nikhil Purohit March 29, 2021

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Topical Highlight Delhi HC Looks Into Access And Innovation Questions On Rare Diseases In this post, Swaraj analyses an order issued by Justice Prathiba M. Singh of the Delhi High Court with regards to patients suffering from ‘rare diseases’. The order sets out three major directives: a) requiring the government to finalize the long pending National Health Policy for Rare Diseases, b) setting up of a ‘National Consortium for Research and Development on therapeutics for Rare Diseases’, and c) setting…

Adyasha Samal { Thank you for bringing out that point, sir. Indeed, implementing a mandatory registration system would unfairly deprive Indian authors of the rights that foreign authors would continue to... }
Jagdish Sagar { Under Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention, copyright protection in works originating in other member countries of the Berne Union cannot be subject to any formalities. If India... }
Praharsh Gour { Hey Megha, Thank you for your comments and pointers. The scenario suggested by you are exactly the same thing we have raised concern about. Seemingly the whole business... }
Megha Banerjee { The only reason that government (ICMR) does not allow other pvt. Drug manufacturing companies to manufacture may be restrictions on ICMR and other other govt. Agencies to create... }
Akshat Agrawal { Hi Adarsh. Thank you. Continuing the conversation. Okay so I think step 1 is important. Copyright exists- but on what does copyright exist? The court has many times... }

De-Coding Indian Intellectual Property Law

Category Archives: Trademark

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 12 – 18)

The Monopoly Purple – Colours, Shapes and Sizes in the Pharmaceutical World

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 5 – 11)

Position of Position Trademarks and Related Confusion

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

The Compilation of the Decade of SpicyIP Posts on IPAB

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 29 – April 4)

Why the Case of Hero Electric vs. Lectro E-Mobility Actually Demystifies the Arbitrability of IP Disputes

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 22 – 28)