Some thoughts on plagiarism

/ By / Copyright, Others

Recently, I came across an interesting article titled ’Putin’s dissertation and the revenge of RuNet’ The article focuses on academic plagiarism by the ruling class especially in Russia. They are being unearthed by Dissernet. Citing various actions against Dissernet at the official levels, the article argues, that the ‘hunter is (unfairly) being hunted’ now. I am not interested in the politics of this article. I have come across quite a few Russia-bashing articles in western media.  I have my own views […]

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Qu-IP: Innovative Impotence in Intellectual Intercourse?

/ By / Innovation, Patent

Readers may recollect an early series of ours titled “Qu-IP”, where we sought to collate some of the wittiest and whackiest IP quips/sentiments. Well, here comes one.. after a rather long hiatus. In one of my exam papers, I’d asked students to reflect on Fritz Machlup’s famous quote: “If we did not have a patent system, it would be irresponsible, on the basis of our present knowledge of its economic consequences, to recommend instituting one. But since we have had

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ED attaches IPRS assets: What next for royalty administration?

/ By / Copyright

A couple of days ago, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) – the law enforcement agency in India that deals with economic offences, attached the assets of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) on allegations of money laundering. This action comes on the basis of allegations that the money that was collected as royalties for musicians and artists was not being distributed to them and that there was misappropriation of this money. Generally, an attachment of assets implies that the ED has at

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Guest Post: The Rs. 400 crore war between Monsanto and Indian seed companies with threats of price control and compulsory licencing of patents

/ By / Competition Law, Patent

What role could the competition and IPR frameworks play in a dispute between Monsanto and Indian cotton seed manufacturers? Prashant Reddy weighs in on the question of the extent to which private contract disputes can be interfered with by State regulation. (Long post ahead) The Rs. 400 crore war between Monsanto and Indian seed companies with threats of price control and compulsory licensing of patents Author: Prashant Reddy There is a storm brewing over foreign IP rights in India and,

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Audio companies v. Film Producers

/ By / Copyright

In continuation of a recent trend of audio companies suing film producers for copying their songs in part or in full, Lahari Audio has sued K A Suresh, producer of the film RX Suri alleging that he has copied two of their songs in this film. A Bangalore City Civil Court has issued summons to the producer after there was no response to the notice issued. Lahari Audio claims that the producer had approached them about using the songs and

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (12-18 October 2015)

/ By / Others

Highlight of the Week This week’s highlight has to be our coverage of the leaked final draft (submitted by the think-tank to the Government) of the National IPR Policy. Swaraj broke the news and shared the draft, after which Prashant Reddy proceeded to tear it apart on multiple grounds. He argues that the policy makes vague, non-committal statements in most areas, and sweeping recommendations without reasons in other places. He observes that the document ignores ground realities, such as the

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The Bajrangi Bhaijaan Lawsuit

/ By / Copyright

(Edit: We would like to thank Mr. Manish Singhal, for sending us a copy of the Court order, available here. The order copy we received only directs one of the defendants, Star India Pvt Ltd. to maintain accounts and not all the other parties, as reported in the media. We would be grateful if one of our readers could shed light on the discrepancies between the media reports and this court order. Has there been another additional order in this

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Copyrightability of Titles: A Definitive Supreme Court Ruling

/ By / Copyright

The issue of IPR protection for titles (film, music etc) is something that we have often discussed on SpicyIP (We had a guest post on copyright protection for film titles- available here, Anubha discussed trademark protection for song titles here). But today, we bring to you the Supreme Court ruling pronounced yesterday by the bench of Justice Lokur and Justice Bobde in Krishika Lulla v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta on this very issue. The Supreme Court has held that generally, there

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Pfizer’s Pregabalin – An IP Tale of Pain and Second Medical Use patents, Part II

/ By / Patent

This is the second post in a two-part post dealing with the England-Wales Patent Court’s recent judgment on Pfizer Group’s Warner-Lambert Company’s dispute regarding its Lyrica medicines and second use patents. The first post dealt with the background of the issue, the validity of the patent in question and the threat claims; the second post deals with the infringement claim, and concludes the post. Infringement Justice Arnold considered the question of infringement of patents, proceeding under the assumption that the

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Pfizer’s Pregabalin – An IP Tale of Pain and Second Medical Use patents, Part I

/ By / Patent

In a fascinating development, the England-Wales Patent court last month pronounced the judgment on Pfizer Group’s Warner-Lambert Company’s dispute regarding its Lyrica medicines, containing the compound pregabalin. This case touches on issues including Second Medical Use patents and ‘skinny labels’ and threats to sue, so read on for a riveting IP story! [Long post ahead!] Background Given the complex background, a bit of backstory is quite necessary here. Until recently Warner-Lambert (which is part of the Pfizer Group) held the

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