Accuracy of IPTO Data: Bidding Tata to Reliance?

/ By / Patent

Responding to Sumathi’s post announcing the latest transparency drive by the IPTO, wherein registered trademarks are now freely searchable via an online database, a commentator rightly expressed concern at the accuracy of data entries. This issue of accuracy, and the extent to which IP stakeholders can rely on this data could not have come at a more opportune moment. For in a recent patent infringement suit, an unsuspecting patentee got caught on the wrong foot owing to a negligent database […]

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Transparency Move Sounds the Death Knell of a Paternalistic Section 45

/ By / Copyright, Trademark

The IPTO (Indian Patent and Trademark Office) hit another nail in the coffin of several of us who made money off clients by performing perfunctory TM searches. However, the “half full” cup suggests that this will free up a lot of our time to engage with serious TM work involving actual legal analysis, assessment and advice. And leave the dirty work to a not so aesthetically appealing online database. As Sumathi rightly notes, we need to applaud the IPTO for

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SpicyIP Tidbit: TM search free; application fees up

/ By / Trademark

The Trademarks Registry is acting on its promises this 2011, with the trademark search engine officially going free. At the same time, the application fees to register a trade mark in one class has gone up from Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500. The revision takes effect from 29 December 2010. (Image from here.) (Readers will recall previous discussions we have had on the impending changes at the Registry, including here and here.) The notification in the Gazette of India confirming

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YET ANOTHER TROUBLE FOR BRITANNIA

/ By / Trademark

ET and other business dailies including Business Standard reported yet another trouble for Britannia. According to news reports, US based Kraft Foods sued Nusli Wadia-owned Britannia industries for trademark infringement of its popular “Oreo” cookies. For more about Oreo cookies see here. The distinctive face of an Oreo cookie In a suit filed in the Delhi High Court, Kraft claimed that Britannia’s recently-introduced “Treat-O” biscuit is a copy of its cream-filled sandwich cookies. According to Kraft, Britannia copied the specific

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Natco seeks license from Pfizer to manufacture a low-cost version of HIV drug

/ By / Uncategorized

The new year seems to have ushered in with some news for compulsory licensing in India. As ET reports, Natco Pharma has sought a voluntary license from Pfizer to manufacture and sell Pfizer’s HIV drug maraviroc (sold as Celsentri).In its notice to Pfizer, Natco stated that the US drug costs an arm and a leg to the HIV patients in India, which has approximately 2.3 million HIV positive patients. Celsentri costs about 65k for a month’s dosage whereas Natco claims

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Patent office rejects Abbott’s application on HIV drug

/ By / Uncategorized

The Indian Patent office has rejected Abbott’s patent application on its heat-stable version of Lopinavir/Ritonavir drug ( sold under the brand name “Kaletra” ) on grounds including failure to satisfy inventive step. The rejection was in response to pre- grant oppositions filed by I-Mak , Cipla, Okasa Ltd and Matrix Lab Ltd. The decision paves the way for access to life-saving medication for patients across the world, noted Tahir Amin, director of initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), one

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2010-at-the-IPO-An analysis of the controller’s decisions

/ By / Uncategorized

The Controller’s Office provided 115 decisions on its website decided between 1/1/2010 and 31/12/2010.  A large number of these decisions were not linked to the relevant file and therefore could not be accessed.  The list mentions nine post grant opposition  proceedings, 15 pre-grant opposition proceedings, 71 proceedings under section (u/s) 15 (office actions), four proceedings u/s 14, one u/s 25, one u/s 60 and six u/s 77.Out of the nine post-grant opposition proceedings, there were five cases where no file

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Listening to the wind of change at Bollywood

/ By / Copyright

(Image obtained from here) The copyright issue has been creating a disturbance within the film industry for a while now. Bollywood producers had earlier proposed to going on strike on January 6th in protest over the proposed amendment to the Copyright Act. Film Federation of India (FFI), also stated to ban lyricist Javed Akhtar, since he is the father of the proposed amendment to the Copyright Bill 2010. We had blogged about this, read here . Film and Television Producers

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GIIP announces Executive Post-Graduate Program in Patent Protection, Enforcement and Management at Bangalore

/ By / Uncategorized

(Image obtained from here)The Global Institute of Intellectual Property (GIIP: an institute that offers IP related courses adhering to international standards) is soon going to offer what promises to be a very useful full-time Executive Post-Graduate Program in Patent Protection, Enforcement and Management. AIM: The program intends to provide professional skills in the field of patents, with a curriculum designed to train and translate knowledge gained into practical application, so that a person, following successful completion of the program, becomes

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Madras High Court admits PPL’s appeals and vacates ‘stay’ granted to SIMCA against Copyright Board order

/ By / Copyright

In an order on the last day before the X’mas vacations the Madras High Court admitted the appeals filed by PPL against the Orders of the Copyright Board in the compulsory licensing dispute. We had blogged about this move over here. The radio stations had initially challenged PPL’s appeals on the grounds that the Madras High Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the appeals. The provision in question, i.e. Section 72 of the Copyright Act, 1957, allows the

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