Compulsory licensing for expensive medicines: KCE report

/ By / Patent

The Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE) recently released an interesting report titled ‘Compulsory licensing for expensive medicines’. This report comes at an opportune moment. Public attention for intellectual property rights and the role it plays in the pharmaceutical sector has significantly revived due to Covid 19. The report does not focus on compulsory licenses (CLs) in emergency situations (like the Covid pandemic), but on the potential to use compulsory licenses for ‘excessively priced’ medicines outside of emergency situations. Ordinarily, …

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Image of "speech" in jail bars, and a stick figure writing a letter, with the words "Write to Free Speech"

IP Reveries: Class 4.1 Ruminating on the “R – Rights” of IPR!

/ By / Others

The IP Reveries series is an experimental ‘fun’ series set in an imaginary classroom where we are using a dialogue format to raise questions and discussions around IP that traditionally don’t find a place to get voiced either due to long standing assumptions, or due to being seen as ‘too trivial’ to discuss in more formal settings. The series is authored by Lokesh Vyas and myself in equal measure. For a general introduction to this IP Reveries series, please check the …

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Delhi High Court on ‘Specified Value’ of IP suits under Commercial Courts Act

/ By / Others

Justice Pratibha Singh of the Delhi High Court, vide judgment dated 3 June 2022 in Vishal Pipes Limited v. Bhavya Pipe Industry, held that all the IPR disputes, irrespective of their valuations, should be listed before the commercial district court judges. If the subject-matter IP is valued below 3 lakhs rupees, the Court will examine whether the valuation is correct or not. If the valuation is found to be below 3 lakhs rupees, the suit will be treated as a …

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Breaking: 12th WTO Ministerial Conference concludes with a Draft Decision on TRIPS (waiver?)

/ By / COVID-19, Patent

After 2 long years and the whole hubbub that the 12th Ministerial Conference was, (see here here and here) WTO has finally come up with the Draft Ministerial Decision On The TRIPS Agreement. The text is bound to have the world split on what to make of it. While multiple detailed assessments of this Draft Decision are due in course, I’ll quickly highlight a few key pointers which stand out (for better or worse)  Footnote 1: Defines ‘eligible Members’ to …

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Of cosmetics, insolvency and trademarks

/ By / Others, Trademark

As reported, Revlon, the iconic cosmetics brand, has filed for bankruptcy. The New-York based cosmetics company reportedly struggled due to competition from other established brands as well as a host of small companies that use social media.  Smaller / niche cosmetic brands have noticeably increased even in the Indian social media space. From offering vegan nail polishes, to natural lipsticks and lip balms, to entering into foreign collaborations, a lot is going on in the Indian cosmetics space. It may …

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Strong Statement by India at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference

/ By / COVID-19, Others, Patent

In an official statement at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, that was both blunt and sharply worded, India’s Union Minister Piyush Goyal quite openly called out the developed nations on at least three major points: 1) diluting the “TRIPS Waiver” to the extent that its little more than existing compulsory licensing provisions; 2) their delaying tactics over the waiver; and 3) as well as their attempt to portray themselves as caring for the developing world while actually hardly moving the …

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Algorithmic Transparency and the Smart State

/ By / Others

While the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) released its much-awaited report on a sparkling new data protection legislation late last year, as reported, the bill may be scrapped for a completely new law. The personal data protection bill had created significant buzz in the industry and society. So much so, the JPC received feedback from over 200 stakeholders representing a cross-section of society. After years of consultations from 2018 onwards, the bill transformed from a ‘Personal Data Protection Bill’ to a …

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Book cover

Some Reflections on “Present at Creation”

/ By / Copyright, Others, Publication

We’re pleased to bring you a post by Prashant reflecting on a book that we’d mentioned recently on the blog – Dr. R.V. Vaidyanathan Ayyar’s “Present at Creation”. As had been mentioned in that earlier blog post, Dr. Ayyar’s 421 paged “Present at Creation: The Making of Internet Treaties 1996” is perhaps the first book that focuses on the negotiating history of the two 1996 Internet Treaties – the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty …

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Call for Applications: Research Positions at Centre for Communication Governance (CCG) at NLU, Delhi [Apply by June 20]

/ By / Opportunities

We’re pleased to inform you that the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University (NLU), Delhi is inviting applications for Community Engagement and Strategic Development positions at the Centre. For details, please read the announcement below. Call for Applications for the Community Engagement and Strategic Development Positions  (i) Community and Engagement Associates, (i) Community and Engagement Officers, (ii) Strategic Development and Partnerships Associates, and (ii) Strategic Development and Partnerships Officers The National Law University Delhi (‘University’), through its Centre …

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graffiti text of 'what's going on'

TRIPS Waiver: Is There Anything To Gain?

/ By / Others

We’re pleased to bring you a guest post with an update on the Covid-19 TRIPS waiver proposal, from Sreenath Namboodiri. You can read the previous posts we’ve had on the TRIPS Waiver here. Sreenath is Assistant Professor at School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University) Delhi NCR. His research focuses on intellectual property rights in relation to health systems, sustainable development and innovation, pharmaceutical patents, knowledge governance, and technology and law. Since 2013, he has been an honorary fellow …

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