At long last!! After being stuck for some years, the Competition Bill is finally passed by the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament in India) . It has yet to clear the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and signed by the President before it becomes law. SpicyIP carried some interesting posts on the Iphone (thanks to Aysha) where we highlighted some of the possible ways in which the competition authority in India might intervene to correct IP abuses in India. The…

THE PIRACY PARADOX: "FASHIONABLE" IP

by Shamnad Basheer September 21, 2007

4 Comments

Mrinalini’s post spurred an interesting discussion on piracy and whether it was a plain “evil”, a “necessary evil” or perhaps a “necessary angel”. A recent scholarly article by Professors Rausiala and Springman point out to the “angelic” qualities of “piracy” and proves that it may indeed prove more a boon than a bane in certain industries. Interestingly titled the “piracy paradox”, the abstract is as below: The orthodox justification for intellectual property is utilitarian. Advocates for strong IP rights argue…

Trademark

The ‘TIGER’ of Britannia

by Prashant Reddy September 21, 2007

7 Comments

The last couple of months have been quite exciting for SpicyIP. From patent disputes (Novartis & Bajaj – TVS) to copyright disputes (Sholay) to trademark disputes (Sholay again) we’ve experienced the ‘holy trinity’ of intellectual property laws. This however seems to be only the beginning of an IP conscious India. The latest high profile dispute to go to court is the Britannia – Danone Dispute over Britannia’s trademark ‘Tiger’; probably one of the first disputes where the tables have been…

Indian Pharmaceutical Lifecycle Management – an oxymoron?

by Duncan Bucknell September 17, 2007

2 Comments

India’s section 3(d) poses some interesting problems for innovator companies seeking to get the best return on investment in India (read ‘longest period of monopoly’). Is that the end of the story for Lifecycle Management in India, though? First up – for those who think that “Lifecycle Management” is a dirty word (phrase), consider (a) the number of ‘innovators’ with generic subsidiaries, or who have entered authorised generic deals, and (b) the enormous and successful new chemical entity programs by…

Patent

Peer to Patent Project: Democratising Patent Review

by Aysha Shaukat September 14, 2007

7 Comments

Calling for a ‘Vox Populi’ on the review of Patent applications, a pilot project , the ‘Peer to Patent Project’ has been launched by Beth Noveck of the New York Law School Institute of Information Law and Policy. Structured on the lines of a deliberative internet based model that encourages community participation in the review of patent applications, it paves the way for a paradigm shift from the traditional process of patent application review and grant. Excerpts from the article…

Price Controls in India: Emerging Dichotomy between Consumers Groups and Domestic Industry

by Shamnad Basheer September 14, 2007

1 Comment

The ET reports on the recent opposition of the pharmaceutical industry to price controls: “Pharma industry on Wednesday opposed a move to tighten controls on drug pricing at a meeting of a Group of Ministers, even as Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan maintained his stand for expanding the list of essential medicines to be regulated. “My ministry is in favour of strengthening National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) so that prices of essential medicines remain under check,” Paswan reporters after the…

Innovation

SpicyIP Tidbits

by Shamnad Basheer September 14, 2007

4 Comments

1. Minister gets Innovative, announces Indian Innovation Act: CNN-IBN reports that Kapil Sibal, the Minister of Science and Technology is promoting an Indian Innovation Act. I quote: “In an effort to increase research investment, the Science and Technology Ministry has announced the Indian Innovation Act. It has asked FICCI to prepare a draft for the act by December this year. The aim of the legislation would be not just to increase research investment, but also strengthen education opportunities in science,…

Living in Glass Houses… (Cont.)

by Mrinalini Kochupillai September 13, 2007

3 Comments

I have been getting a number of comments and suggestions from all around on the last piracy post – this is really inspiring, and very informative! As promised, here’s a summary of all the comments and suggestions received so far for the benefit of all our readers… please keep them coming! Price cuts and Per feature Pricing Ravi suggests that software companies can help themselves a great deal by allowing customers to choose the features that they want and pay…

SpicyIP Events

by Shamnad Basheer September 12, 2007

1 Comment

1. National Seminar on Patents on 23rd September,2007. Thanks to Malavika Kumar, an outstanding student at ILS, Pune for bringing this to our attention. This workshop is organised by the Indian Institute of e Business Management(IIeBM)in association with GMGC and Times Group and will include discussions on a wide variety of India IP themes, including the Novartis Case, Software Patenting and E-filing of Patents Prominent speakers include Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar (Former Director General of CISR,India) and Dr. S. Chandrashekaran (Former…