Madras High Court ‘stays’ the ‘Compulsory Licensing Order’ of the Copyright Board against SIMCA & Super Audio

/ By / Copyright

The Madras High Court today, followed in the footsteps of the Delhi High Court by passing an interim stay on the the Copyright Board compulsory licensing order with respect to the South Indian Music Companies Association (SIMCA) and Super Audio a member company of PPL. We had earlier reported on how the radio stations had initially created an issue of whether or not SIMCA had the standing to file an appeal against the Order of the Copyright Board. Apparently the […]

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Getting "Technical" at the IPAB: Parmar vs Rengaswamy

/ By / Uncategorized

A little birdie informs me that the government will soon be filling up the “technical member” slot at the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). And that the key contenders to this prized position are two Controllers who now work at the Indian Patent Office, namely DPS Parmar and V Rengaswamy. Rengaswamy decided the patentability of the Novartis “Glivec” patent application at the first instance. We wish them the very best of luck in this coveted battle. And hope that our

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Delhi High Court Rules on Copyright Dispute Between Heavy Vehicle Manufacturers

/ By / Copyright

In a brief but interesting order Justice Ravindra Bhat of the Delhi High Court has vacated a year old ex-parte interim injunction in a copyright infringement suit filed by ‘Babbar Wreckers’ against Ashok Leyland and its allied companies allowing them to continue manufacturing the heavy vehicles that are required to be supplied to the Ministry of Defence as part of a government contract. The order can be accessed here. (i) Facts: The Plaintiffs had collaborated with Defendant No.1 – Leyland

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Justice Ravindra Bhat frames ‘issues’ in Nexavar patent infringement dispute before the Delhi High Court;

/ By / Uncategorized

As reported by us earlier Justice Ravindra Bhat of the Delhi High Court has managed to convince both Bayer and Cipla to expedite the Nexaver patent infringement suit directly to trial without hearing arguments on the interim injunction application. On the last date of hearing i.e. 16th November, 2010 the Court framed the ‘issues’ to be decided during the trial. In order to put things in perspective I should point out that in the normal course of events it would

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Delhi High Court rules on ‘Horlicks’ v. ‘Complan’ Ad-Campaign – ‘Ad-gurus’ gone wild

/ By / Comparative Advertising

In a recent judgment Justice Ravindra Bhat of the Delhi High Court has passed interim orders in longstanding litigation between Glaxo Smithkline & Horlicks on one hand and Heinz, the manufacturers of Complan, on the other hand. This particular ad-war took a rather ugly turn with the competitors calling each others product ‘cheap’. Hopefully Justice Bhat’s lucid order should clarify the law to the advertising community and prevent the needless recurrence of such long-winded, expensive litigation which seems to be

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Breaking News: Supreme Court dismisses (Bayer) Patent Linkage Appeal

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This afternoon, a Supreme Court bench consisting of Justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha dismissed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Bayer in the patent linkage matter. It’s a huge surprise that this matter reached the Supreme Court at all, when the point of law (whether or not Indian law permits patent linkage) seemed as crystal clear as Swarovski’s elegant offerings. Indian law simply does not permit patent linkage i.e. the DCGI does not have the legal or institutional

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Policy on open standards for e-governance released

/ By / Uncategorized

India’s Department of IT (DIT) recently finalized its policy on open standards for e-Governance. A write-up about a draft version of the policy and related discussion can be read here.  The final version of the policy adopts a single and Royalty-Free (RF) Open Standard.  The standard can be retrieved from: http://egovstandards.gov.in/  In our discussion of the draft policy, we had focussed on two key provisions of the draft policy as being of interest to patent practitioners-(i) whether the standard would be

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To amend Your Copyright Claim, Better hurry lest You miss the Game: Delhi High Court rejects Application for Amendment of Plaint

/ By / Copyright

Among the followers of Spicy IP, those who are musically inclined must be familiar with the name of Shubha Mudgal, a renowned artist by any standard in the world of music and theatre. The present matter deals with an ongoing dispute between her (hereinafter “Defendant”) and an institution named Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra (hereinafter “Plaintiff”), concerning an alleged violation of S. 14 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter “the Act”). While the matter is still sub judice, the Plaintiff had

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Super Casette Industries vs Board of Film Certification: Certifications Galore

/ By / Copyright

The court has clubbed thirty six writ petitions together and the petitioners are mostly producers, manufacturers, sellers, and also replicators for music companies holding copyrights in audio-visual materials recorded on VCDs and DVDs (discs). The Respondents are the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Union of India through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Commissioner of Police, New Delhi. The petitions were filed, after the police conducted raids on shops and seized discs for violation of Section 52A(2)(a)

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A "Special" Copyright Victory for the Disabled

/ By / Uncategorized

Prashant recently highlighted the key findings of a Parliamentary standing committee constituted to study the copyright amendment bill. In particular, the report comes as a huge victory to two sets of stakeholders, namely film/music artists on the one hand (music composers and lyricists who can now claim a good 50% royalty on all exploitations of their work, notwithstanding any assignments) and the disabled or differently-abled communities on the other. Let me focus on the disability sector in this note. I’ll

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