Yet another case provides an excellent opportunity for the outsourcing sceptics to continue with their “I told you so” attitude.. “According to media reports, the spectre of data theft returned to haunt the Indian BPO industry today with the arrest of four ex-employees of the Indian subsidiary of a US-based company on charges of siphoning off classified information causing loss of over Rs. three crore to the firm. Parsec Technologies Inc, involved in business deals with mortgage originators, which provided…

It is interesting to see how traditional knowledge and bio-resources are becoming increasingly prominent in international intellectual property and trade negotiations. A recent note in MIP (Managing Intellectual Property) states: “The Indian ambassador to the WTO, Ujal Singh Bhatia, has proposed to the WTO Council that the TRIPs Agreement be amended to force patent applicants to disclose the source of biological material used in their inventions. The Indian delegation wants any declaration issued at the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong…

After all that hardcore IP, I thought this would be a welcome change. Try Dr Phil’s test below (as forwarded in an email from one of my friends, Anil Mani, the “voice over guy“–we went to the same school and though some generations apart, he is much younger at heart than I am). I’m not sure whether I scored a 38 or a 41–as sometimes I’m on my back before I go to sleep and sometimes I’m curled up on…

Certainly breaking news!! For those coming in late on this (in true Phantom style), Ranbaxy challenged Pfizer’s 10 billion anti-cholestrol dollar drug (Lipitor) patent, arguing that it was invalid. It was succesful in Austria but lost just yesterday in the UK. A decision is awaited in the US, which incidentally is the main market and where experts expect Pfizer to win (not too surprising, since the US is more pro-patent than is the UK). The UK loss is therefore a…