Weekly Review (24th February to 2nd March)

The SpicyIP highlight of the week is Thomas’ post on Rare diseases and innovation. We chose it as the highlight of the week as it brings to light an often under-discussed topic in the pharma patent world, while also being a stark example of an area that the patent system is currently ill-equipped to deal with. The last week was a busy one for our blog with some very interesting IP developments both in India as well as internationally. We […]

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Delhi HC stays release of Bollywood movie Gulaab Gang

(The release of the movie has now been permitted with a disclaimer that the movie is not based on Ms. Sampat Pal and her work. The stay order by the Single Judge of the Delhi High Court has been vacated by the Division Bench of acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul. We thank our commentator for bringing this to our attention.) Today, the Hindu carried an article that reported the stay issued by the Delhi HC on the

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Guest Post: “RPG Life” Arbitration – some interesting observations

Shashank Mangal, who is fast becoming one of our regular guest posters, brings us a post on a in an area we don’t cover very often – domain name disputes. Shashank is a 4th year student at ILS, Pune. “RPG Life” Arbitration – some interesting observations Recently, an award (here) was passed in a domain name dispute initiated by an Indian entity ‘RPG Life Sciences Ltd.’ against ‘James Mathe’. It was arbitrated upon by ‘WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center’ and

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Guest Post: Change of fees in new Patent Rules

We’re happy to bring our readers a guest post on the recent amendments to the Patent Rules dated 28th February, 2014. The article below is written by Advocate Abhishek Pandurangi, an Indian IP Attorney and Founder, CEO of closer2patents, an IPR Solutions Firm based in India and UAE, with contribution from Ms. Geetha Loni, Senior IP Associate at closer2patents. It does not intend to provide any legal opinion nor is intended to be biased to any person or group of persons

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Delhi HC Vacates Injunction Granted in Favour of Steelbird – Design not New or Original

Steelbird Hi-Tech India Ltd. v. S.P.S. Gambhir and Ors. Text of the judgement available here. The Delhi High Court recently (Feb. 24, 2014) vacated an ex-parte interim injunction granted in favour of helmet makers Steelbird. Justice Manmohan Singh ruled that the registered design on the basis of which Steelbird had initiated infringement proceedings against S.P.S Gambhir and Others was not “new or original”. Facts of the Case: Steelbird Hi-Tech India Ltd. is a company that is engaged in the business

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Censorship, Copyright And the End of ‘Innocence’

Recently, a U.S. Circuit Court has ordered that Google must take down from YouTube the controversial parody film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ based on a copyright claim by actress Cindy Garcia, who makes a 5-second appearance in the film. Copyright Law exists, in contemporary wisdom, to reward and incentivize creativity. However, with the explosion of content that the digital age has ushered in, copyright has also often been used as a censorship tool. We had reported earlier this week about the

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Rare diseases and Innovation

We must applaud ourselves. We must applaud ourselves because we have toiled and advocated the causes of affordable healthcare and access to drugs. We have fought for cancer and malaria medication to be made available at naught a cost to the poor, ailing millions (well with cancer we tried anyway). While battle lines are yet being drawn, as we face up against Big Pharma and the corrupt, rickety governments that ensure they guzzle all our money, there is a group

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Gati Ltd. v. Gati Dance Forum-Trademark infringement

In the last week of February, the Delhi High Court passed its order in the case of M/s GATI Ltd. v. GATI DANCE FORUM which dealt primarily with the issue of an interim injunction in a suit for trademark infringement.  The plaintiff is a company providing cargo management services operating under the name ‘GATI Desk to Desk Cargo’ based in Andhra Pradesh. The plaintiff which began operations in 1989 has specialized in point to point distribution of cargo services where the plaintiff picks up

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The ‘Rise Prize’: The much-needed ‘million-dollar’ encouragement for Indian Innovators

In a hugely welcome development, Mr. Anand Mahindra of the Mahindra group is offering a million dollar challenge to innovators who can provide solutions for two of India’s major problems- traffic stress and electricity shortages. The challenge is to build a driverless car for congested traffic and develop a solar DIY (Do-It-Yourself) kit for household needs. The prize money will be split 70:30 for these solutions respectively. This challenge is part of Mr. Mahindra’s inaugural ‘Rise Prize’ which is aimed

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A Belated Weekly Review (17th February – 24th February)

The last week did not see much action in the field of intellectual property rights in India. A quick recapitulation follows: In the beginning of the week, Swaraj had analysed the GIPC International IP Index 2014 (published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Centre). He concluded that the much touted GIPC IP Index is erroneous inasmuch as it is biased and employs flawed research methodology. He also points out that problematically, it is likely that this report

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