Missed deadlines, docketing errors and unintentional vs. unavoidable errors

/ By / Patent

The Delhi patent office recently issued two well reasoned decisions relating to PCT applications that were filed after the 31 month deadlines.  Both decisions were issued by Dr. K.S. Kardam and in both decisions, the Controller held that because the applicant had missed the deadlines, did not provide sufficient cause for extension of time, information of the applications had become part of the public domain; and both applications were therefore, deemed to be withdrawn.  Interestingly, both cases were handled by […]

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Microsoft Continues its IP Enforcement Drive, Wins Damages

/ By / Uncategorized

We have yet another case of Microsoft seeking and receiving punitive damages for pirated software being used by a small hardware manufacturer in the course of sale of its products. The decision can be viewed here.  The Present Case   In this case, Microsoft alleged that the defendants, a business entity engaged in marketing and selling computer hardware, including assembled desktops and other peripherals. It appears that the vendors were in the habit of pre-installing unauthorised and unlicensed copies of

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Debating the legality and the efficacy of the CSIR-Patent Office agreement to out-source prior art searches

/ By / Uncategorized

Earlier this year, the Patent Office entered into an outsourcing agreement with the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) wherein a specialized division of the latter would conduct prior art searches for pending patent applications and prepare search reports which would be used by patent office examiners to decide the patentability of an invention. The ostensible reason behind this move was to help clear the massive backlog of patent applications at the patent office. This story was initially reported

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SpicyIP Announcements: National Seminar on Critical Issues in International Commercial Arbitration 2012

/ By / Event

SpicyIP is pleased to announce that the National Law Institute University, Bhopal, in association with the University Grants Commission is organising a seminar titled “National Seminar on Critical Issues in International Commercial Arbitration 2012” on 3rd and 4th March, 2012. In their endeavor to encourage scholarship in the area of Corporate Law among law students, CBCL is specifically looking forward to receiving scholarly articles on the subject of Critical Issues in International Commercial Arbitration authored by students, faculties and academicians

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‘Internet’ Domain Name Dispute. Quite Literally.

/ By / Trademark

We’ve covered domain name disputes before, but nothing quite like the case (which can be accessed here) that recently came up before the Delhi High Court, the judgement for which was delivered on 14th December by Justice Murlidhar. On one side, we have the petitioner trying to defend his registration of the domain name http://www.internet.in and on the other, we have a registered trademark proprietor trying to challenge the registration on the ground that he is the owner of the

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Clarification from CSIR on the prior art search services provided to the Patent Office

/ By / Uncategorized

We recently received an email from CSIR objecting to one of my hearsay comments in an earlier post on the quality of prior art search being provided to the Patent by the CSIR.  My statement was as follows:  “The most interesting submissions, in my opinion, is from the ‘Officials of the Delhi Patent Office’. Not only have these officials questioned the practice of outsourcing examinations to the CSIR, they have also criticized the quality of examinations conducted by the CSIR.

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SpicyIP Event: India IP & Innovation Forum, New Delhi, 28 February 2012

/ By / Copyright, Patent, Trademark

From the folks at Managing IP, we have an event update for you on the India IP & Innovation Forum, scheduled for February 28 next year in New Delhi. See the note below for details, sent to us by James Nurton, Managing editor at http://www.managingip.com You can always access the event on our calendar, here. You can also click through from the banner on the left column of the blog for more details. India IP & Innovation Forumwww.managingip.com/IndiaIP2012Regency Hyatt Hotel,

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Conflict, Bias and the Future of Indian IP

/ By / Uncategorized

T’was only some months ago that a big ticket IP litigation involving Novartis’ anti-cancer drug was derailed owing to the recusal by a Supreme Court judge (Justice Bhandari), following allegations of bias. I then pondered on the norms for recusal, asking where we ought to peg our standards? Too strict a standard of recusal, and judges are let off too loosely (and we end up with genuine miscarriages of justice). Too liberal a standard (where anything and everything qualifies as

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The ‘missing files’ at the IPO: Time for a CAG audit?

/ By / Trademark

Earlier this year, we had blogged about the shocking disappearance of around 44,000 missing files from the 5 offices of the trademark registry. The 44,000 missing files had come to light after Justice Murlidhar of the Delhi High Court, hearing a petition by Haldiram Pvt. Ltd., ordered the DIPP to investigate the same. A few months after that internal investigation supervised by Ms. Chandni Raina, Director of the DIPP, the Controller General’s office issued a public notice, informing the general

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Parliament returns ‘badly drafted’ commercial division bill

/ By / Uncategorized

As promised, here is my outline of what transpired in yesterday’s Rajya Sabha debate on the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2010. Before heading into the meat of the debate, you may be interested in knowing what the Bill is about. Prashant had blogged about the legislation about two years ago, which you can read here. PRS has its own set of documents on the Bill, which you can access here. (Image from here.) About the Bill: The Bill

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