IIPS Annual IP Essay Competition, 2011

/ By / Event

The Institute of Intellectual Property Studies (IIPS) is conducting a national IP essay competition on “THE ROLE OF THE LEGISLATURE, THE GOVERNMENT, JUDICIARY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISES IN PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN INDIA”. In the context of the roles of any of the specific bodies mentioned above, participants may choose any one of the following topics: A) Compulsory licensing of Copyrights: Public interest and entertainment industry B) Is open source policy a competitive alternative to monopoly rights or can the […]

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Patent Agent Viva: Sense, Sensibility and Constitutionality

/ By / Patent

I’ve received emails from several candidates who took the patent agent exam earlier on this year, decrying interalia the viva (oral exam) process, its inherent biases and the lack of competent questioning by some examiners. We did a few earlier posts elaborating on why the viva process is inherently flawed and why it has no reasonable co-relation to the conceptual soundness or otherwise of a proposed patent agent. When you’ve already addressed complicated patent queries in a written exam and

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Chairman of Raymond Industries under criminal investigation for patent infringement!

/ By / Patent

One of our regular readers, Irfan Modi, has brought to our attention this news report in the Mumbai Mirror regarding the criminal investigation of Raymond Industries and its Chairperson for alleged infringement of certain patent rights held by Mr. Bharat Bhogilal Patel. We had earlier blogged about Bharat Bhogilal Patel’s patents over here. As per the news that we had with us at that time, Mr. Patel was trying to replicate the Ramkumar saga by enforcing two of his patents

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‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ through Litigation – Sergi Transformers v. CTR Manufacturing Industries

/ By / Uncategorized

A recent judgment on the 6th of June, 2011 by the Bombay High Court (available over here and here), in the case of Sergi Transformers v. CTR Manufacturing Industries has finally concluded a series of appeals, counter-appeals plaguing this patent infringement suit at a stage when the Court had not even framed the issues. It is simply terrifying to note that the system allows for so many appeals and revisions at the stage of pleadings itself. This is the perfect

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Guest Post on the Tasini et. al. lawsuit against Huffington Post

/ By / Copyright

Sai Vinod Nayani, a fourth year student of NUJS has sent us this incsive post on the lawsuit filed by Tasini et. al. against the Huffington post. HUFFERS CRISIS! Claim for Equitable Compensation for Enriching the HuffPost by Sai Vinod Nayani This past April, a class action suit was instituted against Ariana Huffington and the Huffington Post by one of their blogger and labour activist, Jonathan Tasini, demanding a share in the $315 million sale of the latter to AOL

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Reforming the patents & trademarks adjudication mechanism in India – Why does the Indian IP Bar continue to sleep?

/ By / Patent

One of the major pitfalls of the current patents & trademarks adjudication mechanism in India is the multiplicity of forums which can revoke both patents and trademarks. Image from here. The Patents Act, 1970 currently provides for three forums before which a patent can be revoked. Under Section 25(2) the Patent Office can revoke a patent under a post-grant opposition. Under Section 64 both the High Court and the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) can revoke patents during the course

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P.H. Kurian – the Patent Office’s ‘Knight in Shining Armour’ – resigns as the Controller General

/ By / Uncategorized

As most of you may have already heard, the Controller General of Patents, Trademarks & Designs Mr. P.H. Kurian has resigned from his post despite completing only half of his five year term. The new Congress led State Government at Kerala has requested him to join it as the Principal Secretary – an extremely important post in any State Government. This comes as no surprise given the acute shortage of honest AND efficient bureaucrats in this country. Image of Mr.

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Should the Registrar of Copyrights be investigating even PPL?

/ By / Copyright

One of the recurring themes of the last 5 posts on the IPRS controversy is the degree to which PPL seems to have taken over the functions of IPRS. Most pertinently the IPRS management has admitted to signing atleast one MoU with PPL authorizing the latter to commission an agent to issue ‘single window’ licences to T.V. channels. Secondly PPL’s own Annual Reports have claimed that it has been collecting ringtone royalties on behalf of IPRS. The question is whether

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The ‘Original Sin’ of recognizing IPRS as a Copyright Society

/ By / Copyright

The last consignment of RTI information that we had received from the Copyright Office had included a copy of the official ‘file notings’ pertaining to IPRS’s original application to be registered as a Copyright Society, in 1996, under the 1994 amendment to the Copyright Act, 1957. These file notings have now been uploaded on our website and are accessible over here. As explained above these file notings reveal the internal discussions and objections of the Copyright Office to the original

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Patent litigation and standards of injunctions

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Patent law litigation is comparatively new in the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India.  When hearing patent law disputes, Judges mostly follow the usual steps for grant or denial of an injunction.  This approach of applying the usual standards for grant/denial of an injunction in patent law cases is fraught with danger.  It is dangerous because patent litigation even though a part of regular litigation, is different from other Order (O) XXXIX litigation relating to injunctions.  This post

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