WIPO’s Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications (“the Geneva Act”) was adopted on May 20, 2015. On February 26, the Geneva Act officially entered into force after the European Union acceded to the same. Currently, the Geneva Act is effective in 31 countries (Albania, Cambodia, North Korea, Samoa and 27 EU member countries). How is the Geneva Act different from the Lisbon Agreement? The enactment of the Geneva Act was a result of…

Copyright of Music Composers, Lyricists and Performers: Another Missed Opportunity by Mad HC in the Illayaraja Cases – Part II

by Adarsh Ramanujan March 12, 2020

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In Part I of this two-part post, I had analysed the latest judgments of the Madras High Court in Ilaiyaraja (II) and Ilaiyaraja (I), in that order. I had concluded that the Madras High Court in Ilaiyaraja (II) got it right whereas it got it wrong in Ilaiyaraja (I) even though the conclusions are same in both the judgments. This is not a contradiction because the law applicable to the facts in both cases is totally different. In Ilaiyaraja (II),…

Patent

No Reasons Why : Questioning Delhi HC’s Interim Injunction against Sun Pharma in Novartis’ Nilotinib Patent Infringement Suit

by Namratha Murugeshan March 11, 2020

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On 20th February, the Delhi High Court in Novartis Ag & Anr v. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries passed an order issuing a temporary injunction restraining Sun Pharmaceuticals from launching its generic version of Novartis’ Nilotinib. The injunction was granted on the grounds that there was a prima facie case in favor of the plaintiff, that the balance of convenience also lay in favour of them and that they would suffer an irreparable loss without the injunction. Yet, there is no recording…

Copyright of Music Composers, Lyricists and Performers: Another Missed Opportunity by Mad HC in the Illayaraja Cases – Part I

by Adarsh Ramanujan March 11, 2020

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On February 13th, the Madras High Court passed a judgement in the case of M/s. Indian Record Manufacturing Company Limited v. AGI Music Sdn Bhd and Ors., wherein the music composer, Ilaiyaraja, was Defendant no. 2 (“Ilaiyaraja (II)”). The suit was decreed with costs and the defendants, including Ilaiyaraja, and agents etc. were permanently restrained from infringing the Plaintiff’s copyright over certain specifically identified musical works/sound recordings. This is the second judgment concerning Ilaiyaraja, the first being the judgment in…

Trademark

Another Amazon Original : How Amazon is Making and Breaking Trademarks

by Namratha Murugeshan March 9, 2020

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If you browse through Amazon while shopping for something, you’d notice that apart from some unbelievable discounts, most of the brands offering these products are relatively obscure and that you are coming across such a brand name for the first time even though their product with its specs and features looks like it belongs right in your cart. If you are someone who has been using Amazon for a few years now, you’d have also realized that there is a…

Others

Singapore’s Daren Tang Elected as Director General of WIPO amidst a Bitter US-China Face-off – What’s in Store for the Global South and the Development Agenda?

by SpicyIP March 9, 2020

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We’re pleased to bring to you a guest post by Sachin Sathyarajan on the recent election of Singapore’s Daren Tang as the Director General of WIPO. Sachin is a specialist in international law and policy. He is currently engaged as a Senior Research Associate at Jindal Global Law School in India. He also serves as a consultant to the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. He had previously worked with international organizations in Geneva including the World Intellectual Property Organization…

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 2 – 8)

by SpicyIP March 9, 2020

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(This post has been authored by Bhavik Shukla, a 5th year student at NLIU, Bhopal) Topical Highlight Prashant wrote on the order appointing Justice Manmohan Singh to the IPAB until September 21, 2020, a year beyond his actual tenure, pursuant to a Supreme Court order in a petition filed by AIPPI. He notes that the petition was not the first instance where the lawyers have sought his extension or re-appointment. Further, he states that this order of the SC is…

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Experience at the Second IP and Innovation Researchers of Asia (IPIRA) Conference, 2020

by SpicyIP March 7, 2020

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We’re pleased to bring to you a guest post by Debmita Mondal, Assistant Professor, Hidayatullah National Law University (Raipur), on her experience at the Second IP & Innovation Researchers of Asia Conference, recently held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Experience at the Second IP and Innovation Researchers of Asia (IPIRA) Conference, 2020 Debmita Mondal The IP and Innovation Researchers of Asia (IPIRA) 2020 Conference took place last week on the 27th and 28th February at Faculty of Law Universitas, Indonesia. This is…

Trademark

Policy Questions Regarding Protection of Scent Marks

by SpicyIP March 6, 2020

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We’re pleased to bring to you a guest post by Anupriya Dhonchak exploring policy questions regarding protection of smell marks. Anupriya is a 4th year law student at National Law University, Delhi. Policy Questions Regarding Protection of Scent Marks Anupriya Dhonchak One of the cutting edge topics in trademark law today is the issue of non-conventional trademarks. As per the Indian Trade Marks Act a ‘mark’ includes a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, numeral, shape of…

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SpicyIP Jobs: Research Fellow/Associate Position & Ph.D. Program at ARCIALA, SMU School of Law, Singapore [Apply by April 2]

by SpicyIP March 5, 2020

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We’re happy to inform our readers that the School of Law at the Singapore Management University (SMU) has an opening for Research Associate/Research Fellow position for its Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA). The Centre is also inviting applications for its fourth program of sponsoring PhD candidates at their final year of thesis writing to come to SMU for six months. The deadline for applications for both the positions is April 2, 2020. For details,…