‘Internet’ Domain Name Dispute. Quite Literally.

/ By / Trademark

We’ve covered domain name disputes before, but nothing quite like the case (which can be accessed here) that recently came up before the Delhi High Court, the judgement for which was delivered on 14th December by Justice Murlidhar. On one side, we have the petitioner trying to defend his registration of the domain name http://www.internet.in and on the other, we have a registered trademark proprietor trying to challenge the registration on the ground that he is the owner of the […]

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Clarification from CSIR on the prior art search services provided to the Patent Office

/ By / Uncategorized

We recently received an email from CSIR objecting to one of my hearsay comments in an earlier post on the quality of prior art search being provided to the Patent by the CSIR.  My statement was as follows:  “The most interesting submissions, in my opinion, is from the ‘Officials of the Delhi Patent Office’. Not only have these officials questioned the practice of outsourcing examinations to the CSIR, they have also criticized the quality of examinations conducted by the CSIR.

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SpicyIP Event: India IP & Innovation Forum, New Delhi, 28 February 2012

/ By / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

From the folks at Managing IP, we have an event update for you on the India IP & Innovation Forum, scheduled for February 28 next year in New Delhi. See the note below for details, sent to us by James Nurton, Managing editor at http://www.managingip.com You can always access the event on our calendar, here. You can also click through from the banner on the left column of the blog for more details. India IP & Innovation Forumwww.managingip.com/IndiaIP2012Regency Hyatt Hotel,

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Conflict, Bias and the Future of Indian IP

/ By / Uncategorized

T’was only some months ago that a big ticket IP litigation involving Novartis’ anti-cancer drug was derailed owing to the recusal by a Supreme Court judge (Justice Bhandari), following allegations of bias. I then pondered on the norms for recusal, asking where we ought to peg our standards? Too strict a standard of recusal, and judges are let off too loosely (and we end up with genuine miscarriages of justice). Too liberal a standard (where anything and everything qualifies as

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The ‘missing files’ at the IPO: Time for a CAG audit?

/ By / Trademark

Earlier this year, we had blogged about the shocking disappearance of around 44,000 missing files from the 5 offices of the trademark registry. The 44,000 missing files had come to light after Justice Murlidhar of the Delhi High Court, hearing a petition by Haldiram Pvt. Ltd., ordered the DIPP to investigate the same. A few months after that internal investigation supervised by Ms. Chandni Raina, Director of the DIPP, the Controller General’s office issued a public notice, informing the general

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Parliament returns ‘badly drafted’ commercial division bill

/ By / Uncategorized

As promised, here is my outline of what transpired in yesterday’s Rajya Sabha debate on the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2010. Before heading into the meat of the debate, you may be interested in knowing what the Bill is about. Prashant had blogged about the legislation about two years ago, which you can read here. PRS has its own set of documents on the Bill, which you can access here. (Image from here.) About the Bill: The Bill

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40 Examiners – 15 Registrars – 400,000 pending TM applications – The crippling truth about the Trademark Registry

/ By / Trademark

  Over the last few years, the Trademark Registry has come under fire from several quarters for rampant corruption, as witnessed in the arrest of Ms. Kasturi; startling inefficiency, as witnessed by the thousands of missing files and the poor quality of trademark examinations. While of course, some of these problems can be blamed on the poor moral fibre of some, not all, of the staff at the TM Registry, the larger problem appears to be an absolutely appalling lack

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Copyright Bill interrupted by "conflict of interest"

/ By / Uncategorized

Two Bills – on amendments to the copyright law, and the commercial division of High Courts – were taken up in the Rajya Sabha as expected today. But neither of them saw any closure. The Rajya Sabha’s discussion on the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was interrupted as soon as it began. Instead, the brief discussion pivoted around the possible “conflict of interest” of the concerned Minister of Human Resource Development, Mr Kapil Sibal (pictured here). This question was raised because

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Bombay High Court advises Auditoriums against lodging Criminal Complaints against IPRS

/ By / Copyright

The battle between the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) and the Stage Performance Scrutiny Board (SPSB) assumed a new hue recently, when the latter was directed by the Bombay High Court to withdraw a circular that it had issued earlier, seeking to de-recognize IPRS and directing auditoriums to lodge criminal complaints against IPRS, if the latter continues to insist on the requirement of No Objection Certificates for live stage performances based on copyrighted songs. IPRS had also issued a written

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Rajya Sabha scheduled to debate Copyright Amendment Bill and Commercial Division of High Courts Bill tomorrow

/ By / Uncategorized

Tomorrow’s, List of Business for the Rajya Sabha indicates that the Government is seeking to debate and vote on both the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2010 and the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010. Both these Bills were scheduled to be passed in Parliament in the last session which got washed out thanks to the BJP’s protest against the appointment of the Lokayukta in Gujarat by the Governor without consultation with Modi & Co. We had blogged about these Bills

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