September 2012: Controller’s decisions at the IPO

/ By / Uncategorized

In the month of September, 2012 the Controller’s offices issued 94 decisions.  Out of these 94, 46 decisions were granted, 33 refused (including abandoned and withdrawn) and no file uploaded for the remainder (15). There is one instance of a typographical error: perhaps unintentional – where the Controller allowed the application but numbered it incorrectly.  The case is for application 762/MUMNP/2008, and the  Controller allowed the application for 787/MUM/2008.Some interesting decisions: The decisions for section 3(k) / 3(d) / 3(e) […]

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The ‘Register of Owners’ for future copyright societies – will the Registrar of Copyrights get it right 16 years later?

/ By / Copyright

Image from here Sometime in the next few months, once the Copyright Rules, 2012 is finalized by the Copyright Office, the Registrar of Copyrights will begin the process of registering new copyright societies. Sixteen years ago, when Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) was being registered as a copyright society, the Copyright Office committed several blunders during the registration process which inevitably led to the fiasco that followed in the later years. I’ve written about some of these blunders earlier over

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Bata sho(o)ed out of Court – No defamation says Delhi HC

/ By / Uncategorized

Warning, several intended shoe puns have been weaved into this post. Recently, Justice Gambhir of the Delhi High Court in an extensive decision (of about 70 pages) held that the use of the word Bata in the song Mehangai in Prakash Jha’s new movie Chakravyuh was impermissible. In record time, this judgment has been overruled by the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court and Bata has been booted out of court. The Bench through presiding judge, Justice Nandrajog has made some rather

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Sugen’s desperate attempt to save its Sunitinib patent

/ By / Uncategorized

Seven years after the enactment of the Patent (Amendment) Act, 2005, India continues to struggle with the absolute basics of its post-grant opposition mechanism. As our readers may already be aware, the Patent Office recently revoked the patent for Sunitinib.  Although the patent has been identified in the media as a Pfizer patent, Pfizer is only the licensee. The patent is actually owned by Sugen Inc & Pharmacia & Upjohn. In its Form 27 filing with the patent office in

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Internet Fraud: Bogus Open Access Journals

/ By / Uncategorized

Another ingenious internet fraud is on the rise – fraud committed in the name of Open Access (“OA”) journals. Unlike subscription-based journals, OA journals are those which are freely accessible online.  The business model revolves around the author-pay mode — where researchers pay for publishing their work. [The Hindu report is available here.]   Broadly speaking, the modus operandi is to send mails to researchers and scientists soliciting manuscripts. They try to entice researchers by keeping the processing fee low.

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Guest Post: Bayer-Natco decision TRIPS Compliant?

/ By / Uncategorized

The Bayer-Natco decision broke ground as the first compulsory license earlier this year, and last month Bayer’s appeal was dismissed by the IPAB. Dr Enrico Bonadio sent us a commentary he published in the current issue of the European Intellectual Property Review, questioning the TRIPs compliancy of the ruling. Dr Bonadio is a lecturer of IP and EU law at The City Law School University, London and was practicing as an IP attorney in top tier international firms for several years. His

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Guest Post: ‘Xerox’ is not Generic…….Yet?!

/ By / Trademark

As we had mentioned in passing a few weeks ago, Xerox Corporation scored a major victory before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) which dismissed several petitions by a Chennai based photocopy shop to declare the ‘Xerox’ trademark a generic mark thereby disqualifying it for trademark protection. Given the sheer volume of evidence presented by the petitioner, the judgment of the IPAB was a hard fought victory for Xerox and its lawyer, Shwestasree Majumdar. The judgment can be read over

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Spicy IP Weekly Review (October Week 2)

/ By / Others

This week (October 8-14) has seen quite a few happenings in the IP scenario in and out of the country and as many as 12 posts in the blog.   IPAB Appointment Controversy It started with Prashant covering the Delhi High Court judgment of Sanjeev Kumar Chaswal v. Union of India, which dealt with the controversies surrounding the IPAB appointments. In this matter, which was primarily about the suitability of candidature of Mr. Chaswal, the court had ruled against the

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Roche vs Cipla: A Patent Disappointment?

/ By / Patent

Given that the recent Roche vs Cipla decision was effectively India’s first post trial pharma patent ruling in a post TRIPS world, one might be forgiven for expecting a lot. Sadly, it disappointed…on several fronts. As I’d noted in an earlier post, the ruling suffers from serious jurisprudential flaws, with the Delhi High court effectively conflating issues of validity and infringement. A Mint article by CH Unnikrishnan encapsulates my views as below: “While many of us are happy about the

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Ever participated in a clinical trial? Perhaps.

/ By / Drug Regulation, Patent

The Supreme Court recently came down very heavily on the government about the lack of transparency in the manner in which clinical trials are conducted in our country. These observations were made during the hearing of a PIL (which the Supreme Court seems to be entertaining in increasing numbers!) filed by an NGO from Madhya Pradesh. For the section of our readers unfamiliar with what clinical trials are and how they work, clinical trials are a part of the R&D

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