The glory of being a copyright lawyer, by the name of Ameet Datta

/ By / Uncategorized

Mr. Ameet Dutta Around two weeks ago, on the 30th of May, 2012 I witnessed an incredible sight at the auditorium on the ISKCON premises at Juhu, Mumbai. An auditorium filled with the leading lights of the musical community from Bollywood, led by Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Vishal Bhaaradwaj, Anandji, Shreya Ghosal, Shan, Prasoon Joshi etc. were on their feet to deliver a thundering, heartfelt ovation for a copyright lawyer who had advised Javed Akhtar through the entire process of lobbying […]

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New patent prevents textbook sharing (in US)

/ By / Copyright, Patent

Anti-piracy device from the good old days While silly patents are nothing new, now and then, there are certain patents that seem to cross certain lines. A new patent granted by the USPTO to economist Joseph Vogel, professor at University of Puerto Rico-Ria Piedras, will restrict textbook sharing amongst students in the guise of attempting to cut down on piracy.  The patent is designed to prevent “unauthorized access to copyrighted academic texts is provided in which trademark licenses, discussion boards,

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Removal of ‘Manjal’ from Registry – Update

/ By / Trademark

Business Line reportedthe restoration of status quo by the Madras High Court in the dispute regarding the removal of ‘Manjal’ from the trademarks register. As per the report, the Madras High Court passed an (interim) order staying the impugned order dated January 21, 2011 passed by the Deputy Registrar and issued notice to the Deputy Registrar and Divine Pharmaceuticals. As I could gather, the Court granted the interim stay while the matter came up for admission. I had earlier covered

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FT vs TOI: The rest is yet to come

/ By / Trademark

The title-ownership battle between two global media giants — The Financial Times Ltd., of the UK, and the home-grown Times Publishing House Ltd., known to us through their flagship publications, the Financial Times (FT) and the Times of India (TOI)  — may well go down as one of the longest ever in Indian corporate history. {warning: extremely long post}FT has been trying to enter the Indian market for many years now, through joint ventures, content sharing agreements and the like,

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Delhi Court issues summons to Colgate top brass and TM Registrar in a criminal case filed by Anchor

/ By / Trademark

(Co-authored with Sai Vinod Nayani) In an order dated 2nd of April, 2012, a Metropolitan Magistrate at New Delhi, acting on a criminal complaint filed by Anchor Health & Beauty Care Pvt. Ltd., has summoned before her several top officials of Colgate-Palmolive, including its global CEO Mr. Ian Cook, along with Mr. G. L. Verma, a Registrar at the Trade Marks Registry. The allegations against Colgate and the Registrar of Trade Marks relate to forgery of a document, making a

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From the Archives: The lobbying briefs of the IDMA, IPA, OPPI & ICPA for the Patent (Amendment) Acts of 1999 & 2002

/ By / Patent

Image from here. Continuing from my earlier post on the archives from the DIPP, I would also like to share with our readers some of the policy briefs submitted by various industry bodies, that we managed to extract from the DIPP’s files on the Patent (Amendment) Act, 1999 & Patent (Amendment) Act, 2002.  I have scanned and made available on the internet the following documents:  (i) IDMA: The Indian Drug Manufacturer’s Association (IDMA), which is one of the oldest and

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From the archives: A brief glance at the govt. files on the Patent (Amendment) Acts of 1999 & 2002

/ By / Patent

Image from here Earlier this year, I had gone to the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Industry & Commerce, along with Sumathi, hoping to collect some information under the RTI Act from the official files on the Patent (Amendment) Act, 1999 & 2002. It was obviously impossible to photocopy all the files, so we did the next best thing and picked out what we thought were the most interesting papers. In particular we focussed on the

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SpicyIP Announcements: FISME Calls for Research Papers on Identification and Valuation of IPRs in MSMEs

/ By / Event

We are pleased to inform you that the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) in association with the Foreign Commonwealth Office (UK) through British High Commission in New Delhi are inviting research papers on ‘Identification and Valuation of IPRs in MSMEs’. FISME established in 1995 aims to promote entrepreneurship and facilitate creation of a competitive environment for Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). FISME recently set up three IP Facilitation Centers (IPFCs) in New Delhi,

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Preparing for the patent agent examination-free online course

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I have over the past year, received many questions from prospective candidates and colleagues regarding preparation for the patent agent examination.  My advice to them has been to regularly read the patent office manual and prepare for claim drafting, specification from specifications made available online at WIPO, USPTO and our very own IPO websites. To this extent, I have merely pointed the aspirants in one direction, which in my opinion is the right direction.  This approach however, may not be

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The need to sharpen the legal skills of the IPO

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Image from here. Continuing from Rajiv’s earlier post, on the manner in which some of the assistant patent controllers are passing summary orders without adequate reasoning, I would like to extend the discussion to some of the orders passed in RTI matters especially the order of the G.I. Registry rejecting Sumathi’s appeal against denial of information relating to the ‘basmati’ proceedings.  To briefly recap the facts of the case, the CPIO had denied all papers pertaining to the ‘opposition’ proceedings

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