SpicyIP Tidbit: RSC puts forward excellent US Copyright analysis; gets retracted next day

/ By / Copyright

On Nov 16th, in a little over 8 pages, Republican Study Committee (RSC) staffer Derek Khanna put forward a succinct and accurate report on US Copyright laws, its problems and some policy solutions. About 24 hours later, the RSC issued a statement saying that they were retracting the policy brief as it had been published without adequate review and failed to meet their standard for publication.  (As per wiki page, “The Republican Study Committee [RSC] is a caucus of over 170 conservative members […]

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Civil society sounds the war cry for affordable Herceptin – Roche’s worst nightmare comes true

/ By / Uncategorized

A coalition of NGOs, breast-cancer-survivors and academics have shot off a letter to the Prime Minister of India demanding measures to ensure that Herceptin, the breast cancer drug sold by Roche is made more affordable for Indian women. The letter dated 5th of November, 2012 can be foundhere and does not appear to have been picked up by the mainstream media as of yet. You can join the Facebook group over here. The letter provides the Prime Minister with details

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (November Week 4)

/ By / Uncategorized

Another relatively quiet week in the IP world has passed us as we go deeper into holiday season. Having said that though, there have been a few very notable developments in this last week. Starting off, in what is definitely the highlight this last week, is the 5-6 hour hearing that Prof Shamnad Basheer received as an academic intervenor over a 2 day period in the much highlighted Novartis case presently before the Supreme Court. As Prashant writes, ‘His arguments (as expected)

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Bayer makes an attempt to nix NATCO’s CL for Nexavar

/ By / Uncategorized

Image from here Bayer Corporation, which earlier this year lost its bid to oppose NATCO’s application for a compulsory license (CL) for its Nexavar patent, is now attempting to terminate the CL on the grounds that NATCO has violated the terms and conditions of the CL by exporting its generic version of Nexavar to Pakistan and China. The Controller General’s order was very clear that NATCO was licensed to market the drug only within the territory of India.  Bayer had

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BCCI blocks Photo Agencies in India-England Test Series: International News Agencies say "It’s not Cricket!"

/ By / Copyright

(Image taken from here)Well, the cricket enthusiasts among the readers of Spicy IP are no doubt glued to the daily reports of the India-England ongoing test series, with the series poised on 1-1 in a tantalizing manner. The traditionalists would undoubtedly swear by the attractions of a well-crafted test match news report (with stalwarts like Neville Cardus having created not a few rare gems in that field). However, it is not the fate of the entire global populace to savour

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University of New Hampshire School of Law seeks Executive Director for the Franklin Pierce Center for IP

/ By / Uncategorized

(Image from here) IP Job Opening: Some of the readers of Spicy IP may be interested to know of a new promising career position that has just opened with the University of New Hampshire (UNH) School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center). UNH is currently looking for an accomplished IP professional with administrative experience and expertise to serve as the Executive Director for the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. Profile of Employer Institution: For the rare few who

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Madras High Court rules against ‘safe-harbour’ for ISPs – a victory for copyright owners

/ By / Copyright

Image from here The Hinduand Medianama, have both recently reported on a judgment of the Madras High Court in the copyright infringement lawsuits filed by the copyright owners of ‘Dhammu’ & ‘3’ against 15 Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These are the lawsuits which led to the entire blocking of file-sharing websites on the suspicion that these websites were being used to distribute pirated copies of the newly released movies. Outraged internet users had responded to these orders by hacking the

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Prathiba Singh wins award for being the foremost female IP lawyer in the Asia region

/ By / Uncategorized

We’ve recently been informed that seasoned IP litigator and founder of Singh & Singh, Ms. Prathiba Singh has been recognized as the foremost female IP lawyer by the Asia Women in Business Law Awards celebrated by the Euromoney Legal Media Group, which also publishes Managing IP. The entire list can be accessed over here. For those of your familiar with Prathiba Singh, you must know that she has participated in some of the most high-value IP litigation in the country

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Off-topic: Press Release Journalism by the Times of India in the ESG-Monsanto case

/ By / Biological Diversity

Image from here Earlier this year, on the 10 of May, 2010 one of India’ national newspapers, Hindu carried a first of its kind story alleging that its rival competitor and the largest selling English newspaper in the world, the Times of India was publishing advertisements for Monsanto’s Bt cotton crop as ‘news’ without informing its readers that the same was an advertisement – a phenomenon known as ‘paid news’ in India. I won’t get into the accuracy of Hindu’s

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SpicyIP Tidbit: ESG sues the Govt. of India & NBA for non-prosecution of Monsanto’s Indian subsidiary

/ By / Biological Diversity

Well, it finally happened. After crying itself hoarse for more than a year over the non-prosecution of Monsanto’s subsidiary Mahyco for alleged bio-piracy of biological resources related to Brinjal, the Bangalore based NGO – Environmental Support Group (ESG) has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Karnataka High Court. In this petition ESG has sued the National Biodiversity Authority, the Union of India, the Ministry of Environment & Forests, the State of Karnataka & the Karnataka State Biodiversity Board.

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