Just came across Adam Liptak’s interesting piece titled “When Rendering Decisions, Judges Are Finding Law Reviews Irrelevant” in the New York Times. Liptak captures an interesting judicial perspective on how relevant US law review articles really are. Very important lessons here, particularly for Indian academics that seek to make impact on the judiciary. Particularly relevant in the context of intellectual property, where we are bound to see a large number of cases in the post pharma patent environment. Unfortunately, the…

As many of us know, the Indian Patent Office does not do a great job of making information publicly accessible/available. Currently, it publishes patent applications through its weekly journal, (in both print and electronic formats) containing only bare essentials such as the abstract, title of the invention, convention priority date and applicant details. A copy of the complete specification has to be requested in writing from the Patent Office. Apart from this, the Patent Facilitating Centre (PFC) of TIFAC provides…

When Shamnad drew my attention to a report on the purported injunction against eBay as granted by an Indian court, I was quite surprised (to put it very mildly)! In India the courts have traditionally taken a stand against ISP liability and if such an injunction had indeed been granted it would diametrically change this position. Yet, despite the news.com report (hyperlinked above) having used fairly cautious language, other media reports on the issue such as times online contain unequivocal…

The International Herald Tribune carries this interesting story of a PPP (Public Private Partnership) between Sanofi Aventis and DNdI (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) that resulted in a new and useful malaria pill. The news item states: “A new, cheap pill to treat malaria was introduced Thursday, the first product of an innovative partnership between an international drug company and a medical charity. The medicine, called ASAQ, is a pill combining artemisinin, invented in China using sweet wormwood and hailed…

The Indian Cabinet has approved a plan for the country to accede to the Madrid Protocol. If the proposal gets the backing of the Parliament, international trade mark owners will be able to extend their rights to the world’s second most populous country using the Madrid system, and Indian applicants will be able to extend their trade marks overseas. (See the detailed report in MIP) What does this mean for trademark owners in the light of the Trade Marks Act,…