SpicyIP

SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (12.01.2026)

January 12, 2026 / By Gaurangi Kapoor / Courses & Workshops, Opportunities

Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles! As always, we’ve rounded up a mix of developments, opportunities, and thoughtful reads from across the IP world along with a Bell of the Week that’s well worth revisiting. Bell of the Week: Sarai’s FLOSS Initiative This week’s Bell doesn’t just chime, it opens up access. We’re spotlighting the FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) work of the Sarai Programme, an early and influential effort to make free software meaningful and usable […]

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (January 5 – January 11)

January 12, 2026 / By Md Sabeeh Ahmad / Copyright, Others, Patent, Trademark

More on the DPIIT Working Paper on AI and Copyright – a post on lawful access while ignoring copyright law and a two-part post arguing that Copyright law is ill-suited to address labour displacement caused by GenAI! A post critically examining the DHC’s sweeping judgement on Domain Names. This and much more in this week’s SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we are missing out on? Drop a comment below to let us know. Highlights of the Week DPIIT Working Report: Lawful

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DPIIT Working Report: Lawful Access while ignoring Copyright Law

January 9, 2026 / By Yogesh Byadwal / Copyright, Others

When I was reading the DPIIT working paper on AI & Copyright, my mind instantly went back to Bartz v Anthropic. To be specific, I recalled the following lines from the judgement- “The downloaded pirated copies used to build a central library were not justified by a fair use.” As Ed Lee explained here, Bartz did not consider it relevant whether the pirated copies would be used for transformative use. The fact that a central library was built using pirated books disqualified Anthropic from using fair use as a defence.

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Striking Out the Giant: Delhi HC Reaffirms Territoriality in MLB Trademark Dispute

January 7, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

In Sumit Vijay v. Major League Baseball Properties, the Delhi High Court recently held that the Toronto Blue Jays did not enjoy a trans-border trademark reputation in India in 1998, noting pointedly that baseball is not a popular sport in a cricket-centric country like India. Aditya Bhargava analyses how the Court uses this context to reinforce territoriality in trademark law, demanding strict, contemporaneous evidence of Indian reputation and rejecting global fame, internet presence, and abandoned registrations as substitutes. Aditya is

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Regulating Domain Name System: DHC’s Ex Ante Turn

January 7, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

In a series of sweeping judgments on the Domain Name System, the Delhi High Court has framed anonymous and infringing domain registrations as a problem of systemic online fraud rather than routine trademark disputes. Vishno Sudheendra critically examines the Court’s wide-ranging directions, arguing that their ex ante regulatory turn is overbroad, raises serious data protection concerns, and blurs key doctrinal distinctions in domain name law. Vishno is a fourth-year B.A., LL.B (Hons) student at the National Law School of India

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Part 2: Copyright is the Wrong Answer

January 7, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Copyright

Continuing the discussion on why copyright is ill-equipped to address labour displacement caused by GenAI, Part II of Akshat’s post moves beyond copyright to explore alternative frameworks for engaging with the underlying concerns. Akshat is the founder and counsel at AASA Law Chambers. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. He would like to add the following acknowledgements and disclaimer- “Credit to Profs. Oren Bracha and Talha Syed for ideas, and for “The Work of Copyright in the

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Part 1: Copyright is the Wrong Answer

January 7, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Copyright

Against the backdrop of DPIIT’s Working Paper on AI and Copyright, Akshat argues that both the paper’s proposed framework and a broader turn to copyright are ill-suited to address labour displacement caused by GenAI and risk harming the very creators they claim to safeguard. Akshat is the founder and counsel at AASA Law Chambers. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. He would like to add the following acknowledgements and disclaimer- “Credit to Profs. Oren Bracha

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Public Domain Day 2026: What the Entry of Classic Works means for Copyright Law and Creative Freedom

Public Domain Day (January 1st) offers a moment to reflect on the true purpose of copyright law release, not perpetual control. Discussing the importance of this momentous day, Sminal Badge examines India’s neglected public domain, tracing how institutional gaps and private gatekeeping undermine access, creativity, education, and emerging AI innovation, and why treating the public domain as a functional legal resource is now imperative. Sminal is a 4th Year Student from Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai. He has a keen

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Bata v. Leayan: Examining the Interplay of Sections 17 and 35 of the Trade Marks Act

January 7, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Trademark

The Delhi High Court’s decision in Leayan Global Pvt. Ltd. v. Bata India Ltd. turns on the uneasy interaction between exclusive trademark rights and descriptive use defences. Arshiya Gupta probes the Court’s see-saw framing of Sections 17 and 35, and asks whether collapsing these distinct enquiries risks blurring core principles of trademark doctrine. Arshiya is a third-year law student at National Law University, Delhi, with a keen inclination towards PIL, IPR, and criminal law. Bata v. Leayan: Examining the Interplay

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Tariff-Secrecy Double Bind: How Global Trade Rules Undermine Pharmaceutical Access In The Global South

January 6, 2026 / By SpicyIP / Data Exclusivity, Others

Examining the growing structural gap between TRIPS’ public-health objectives and the contemporary political economy of pharmaceuticals, Tanya Verma in her entry for the SpicyIP-jhana Blogpost Writing Competition, argues that tariff regimes and expanding trade-secret protections together create a “double bind” that constrains the Global South’s ability to both import and manufacture medicines. Tanya is a fifth year student at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow. Tariff-Secrecy Double Bind: How Global Trade Rules Undermine Pharmaceutical Access In The Global

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