Saregama on a litigation spree before the Calcutta High Court; sues PPL, Select Media, Eros (for 11 seconds of infringement!), etc.

/ By / Copyright

Saregama India Ltd., one of the oldest music labels in India and part of the RPG conglomerate, has been on a litigation spree in the last 3 months suing everybody from its business partners to its customers to an anonymous website, presumably songs.pk. Image from here.  In the first suit filed in December, 2011 Saregama sued Phonographic Performance Ltd. (PPL), and Select Media Ltd for copyright infringement leading from a breach of a contract to licence its copyrights. While PPL […]

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Guest Post: A landmark judgement on ‘parallel imports’ under the Trade Mark Act, 1999

/ By / Trademark

Arun Mohan, an upcoming IP lawyer from Chennai, who has previously blogged for us over here and here, has sent us the following guest post analysing the recent judgement of the Delhi High Court in the case of Samsung v. Kapil Wadhwa. This judgement significantly impacts the law on ‘parallel imports’. The order also touches on the issue of trademark infringement in the case of meta-tagging. Image from here.  An analysis of Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. v. Kapil Wadhwa &

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Producers of ‘hit’ Tamil movie ‘Aaranya Kaandam’ face an ex-parte injunction for alleged copyright infringement

/ By / Copyright

In an order dated the 29th of February, 2012 the Madras High Court acting on a plea by Tamil script-writer Thiagarajan Kumararaja, passed an ex-parte interim injunction against Capital Film Works (India) Limited, the producers of the Tamil Movie – ‘Aaranya Kaandam’ restraining the latter from releasing the dubbed version of the movie in Telugu and Hindi. The order can be accessed over here.  The Plaintiff in this case, Mr. Kumararaja, is the script-writer and director of the movie ‘Aaranya

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SpicyIP Tidbits: Patents, TKDL and our ‘holy cows’

/ By / Uncategorized

Kounteya Sinha of the Times of India has recently reported on yet another success story of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). I’m a little amused at the title though, which claims that ‘India foils Swiss MNC’s bio-piracy bid’. The patent application in question, which was filed by Nestec S.A. before the European Patent Office (EPO) was for the use of ‘cow-milk’ as a laxative in the treatment of constipation. How is this ‘bio-piracy’? Nestec probably used milk from Swiss

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The rage against the Karnataka State Bio-Diversity Board: too much rhetoric?

/ By / Biological Diversity

In a scathing press release, published about a month ago, the Environmental Support Group (ESG), a Bangalore based NGO, has slammed the decision of the Karnataka State Biodiversity Board to not prosecute Monsanto’s Indian subsidiary, Mahyco for alleged bio-piracy of a certain variety of brinjal which was used to create the genetically modified and hugely controversial Bt-Brinjal. Image from here. ESG had alleged, last year, that Mahyco and its collaborators had accessed the genetic material without the requisite permissions under

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Software patentability, section 3(k) and recent controller decisions at the IPO-Part 2/2

/ By / Uncategorized

In continuation of our previous post on section 3(k), this part discusses the other two section 3(k) cases.  For ease of readability, the entire post was carved in two separate parts.  Part 2 of 2 follows: Warning: Long post:     Before analyzing each decision, section (k) of our patent act is reproduced (with added emphasis) for ready reference. “3. What are not inventions: The following are not inventions within the meaning of this Act, — …(k)              a mathematicalor business method or

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Software patentability, section 3(k) and recent controller decisions at the IPO-Part 1/2

/ By / Uncategorized

In a recent post, we had provided a list of decisions issued by the Controller, at our patent office (“IPO”).  A few of those decisions related to Section 3(k).  This post analyzes those two 3(k) decisions, and one 3(k) recent decision, issued late February at the IPO.  In addition, this post provides a list of Controller’s decisions issued in the month of February 2012.  The 3(k) decisions have been highlighted separately in the table below.  In two of the cases (January), the Controller got it

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Guest Post: Mayo v Prometheus-a critique

/ By / Patent

We are pleased to bring to our readers another guest piece by Sooraj K. Abraham, on the learning of the Mayo v. Prometheus case. The post is a critique of the oral arguments in the ongoing case of Mayo v. Prometheus in the Supreme Court of the United States. The author seeks to analyze the dynamic approach with which the Judges are in the process of tackling the concept of preemption with regard to patenting of life science inventions.  Warning: Long post follows.

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Guest Post: ‘Highbrowed’ v. ‘Zippy’ Journalism – The Case of the Hindu and the Times of India

/ By / Comparative Advertising

Spicy IP brings for its readers the following guest post on the recent controversial comparative advertising campaign that has been going on between two of the leading national dailies. The post has been authored by Shatarupa Choudhury, a 5th year student pursuing her B.A.L.L.B. degree from the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (who can be reached at [email protected]). A tug of war between two giants of the print media sector is on. The Times of India came up with

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National Science Day – The good and bad of Indian policy initiatives for scientific research and innovation

/ By / Innovation

The 28th of February is celebrated as ‘National Science Day’ in India, in memory of C.V. Raman who was responsible for the discovery of what was later known as the ‘Raman Effect’. Raman was the first Indian and also the first ‘non-white’ to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1930. Given the significance of this day, it makes sense to review the policy initiatives to put India back on the research track. Image of C.V.Raman from here.  In

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