Whilst most of us await the Madras High Court judgment on the constitutionality of section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, here’s an update on what’s going on at the IPAB (Intellectual Property Appellate Board), the specialized IP tribunal in India. As mentioned in an earlier post, the Novartis litigation was split up—the patentability issue was referred to the IPAB and the constitutionality issue was to continue with the Chennai High Court. Before the IPAB could even begin to wade…

Protecting Wal-Mart’s Trademark in India

by Jayant Kumar June 15, 2007

Patenting Slokas:Offbeat Chants!

by Aysha Shaukat June 9, 2007

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The Yoga- Patent imbroglio effectively fueled by media hyperbole and rhetoric continues unabated albeit with a small detour. After doing the wrong stretch on yoga, this time around it’s a wrong chant of the Slokas The debate has progressed (or should I say regressed) to patenting of Slokas.Slokas are traditional Sanskrit Verses that are found in ancient Vedic texts. As such the term ‘sloka’ could be used to broadly mean and include verses from ayurvedic texts; verses that are chanted…

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谷歌贏爭端 – I meant "Google wins dispute"

by Shwetasree Majumder June 8, 2007

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What does Chen Zhaoyang have in common with gmail? Forget it, don’t rack your brains as the answer is “nothing”. He is a cybersquatter who registered the domain name gmail.co.in in 2005. Google filed a complaint with the National Internet Exchange of India under the INDRP (.in Dispute Resolution Policy) seeking a transfer of the domain name in their favour. Today’s Hindu Business Line reports that the sole arbitrator Mr. A K Singh who was appointed by NIXI has passed…

Patent

RANBAXY TAKES ON PFIZER AGAIN IN CADUET CONTROVERSY

by Shamnad Basheer June 6, 2007

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Down to Earth has an interesting story on the Caduet patent dispute, yet another big ticket litigation between Ranbaxy and Pfizer. Rohan George states: “Indian drug manufacturer Ranbaxy is contesting US multinational Pfizer in 17 countries. It is filing for the right to manufacture generic versions of the world’s bestselling drug Lipitor and a combination drug Caduet, in the us. At the crux of the dispute is Pfizer’s designs on a patent extension by combining Lipitor with another drug: Norvasc….

Data Exclusivity Patent

Indian Committee Report on Article 39.3 and Regulatory Data Protection

by Shamnad Basheer June 6, 2007

INDIAN GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE SAYS "NO" TO DATA EXCLUSIVITY

by Shamnad Basheer June 6, 2007

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After multiple deliberations spanning more than 3 years, a government committee has finally submitted its report on regulatory data protection and Article 39.3 of TRIPS. It finds that Article 39.3 does not require “data exclusivity” and that, at the present moment, it may not be in India’s national interest to grant “data exclusivity” to pharmaceutical drug data. It relies heavily on the Doha Declaration to support this interpretation. It argues that a “trade secrecy” form of protection is sufficient to…

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In the teeth of the issue

by Shwetasree Majumder June 6, 2007

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The Delhi High court has injuncted Ajanta India Ltd. from using a red and white packaging for its toothpowder cans on the ground that the same infringes the trademarks and copyrights of Colgate-Palmolive and directed the former to file an affidavit of compliance. Ajanta was initially marketing its toothpowder in a red can. Recently, they switched over to a can which allegedly echoed the trade dress of the Colgate Toothpowder packaging in red and white colour combination. Colgate immediately brought…

Spy.vs.Spy— Dynamics of Trade Secret Protection

by Aysha Shaukat June 5, 2007

Ebay and Rowling (Part II) – Confounding the Conundrum!

by Shwetasree Majumder June 5, 2007

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As promised a few months ago, I bring you the final outcome of the eBay-Rowling controversy. In a detailed order running into 16 pages, the Delhi High Court has ruled on 31st May 2007 that …the responsibility and/or liability of the defendant No.5 who runs the said website (i.e. eBay) facilitating sale and purchase of goods and services by intending sellers and purchasers using its website, when such sale amounts to infringing the rights of others-like the present one where…