Husha Busha – We All Fall Down!

/ By / Uncategorized

With Rakhi Sawant’s swayambhar coming to a close, I was all ready for unexpected drama. However, drama unfolded elsewhere and the main actors, NASSCOM and  Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), gave the government and the IT industry quite a jolt. The drama was in relation to the Draft Policy on Open Standards for E-Governance, introduced by the Ministry of Information and Communication Broadcasting last year. The policy has been high on controversy ever since it’s release. In an earlier post […]

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First VIP Speaker at NUJS: Jayashree Watal on Doha and TRIPS

/ By / Biological Diversity

As mentioned in an earlier post, we’re now running the VIP (Venting Ideas on Intellectual Property) series for this academic year at NUJS. Our first speaker for this academic year is Jayashree Watal who will speak on “TRIPS and the Current Doha Round”. In her talk, she proposes to touch upon the current Doha negotiations, TRIPS and Development, IP and Public Health Issues, and issues of special interest to India such as geographical indications and protection of biodiversity. For those

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Compulsory Licensing by the Copyright Board: Whither Copyright Expertise?

/ By / Copyright

SpicyIP just discovered that the mother of all compulsory licensing battles is being waged before the Indian Copyright Board, a statutory body entrusted with certain specific tasks under the Indian Copyright Act. The warring factions involve radio stations (such as Radio City and Radio Mirchi) on the one hand who are seeking to gain compulsory licenses to broadcast music at low rates, and content owners (T Series) or administrators (PPL, IPRS) who wish to peg the rates as high as

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Yet another Sound Mark Granted

/ By / Trademark

The first sound mark was obtained in India in August, 2008 by Yahoo for its famous “yodel”. (Refer to a previous post on the same).This trend in favour of granting non-conventional trademarks has been further strengthened with the registration of a sound mark for Allianz Aktiengesellschaft, a German Company (Allianz). Allianz was represented by Fox Mandal Little. Another sound mark for Allianz is through with the prosecution and is expected to be granted the registration certificate very soon. These marks

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Another Win for Indian IP and Transparency: IPAB Website Updated

/ By / Uncategorized

In a previous post, we lamented that the IPAB did not put up timely web updates of its decisions. Feroz Ali, author of the leading Indian patent book, wrote in to thank us for our note on the blog in this regard and inform us that the IPAB has now put up its most recent decisions. We thank the IPAB for having done this. If any of you are aware of other Indian IP bodies that fail to make available

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Is Recession the Mother of Innovation?

/ By / Innovation, Patent

BusinessWeek has a special report on the current economic recession and the importance of innovation. One of the key articles in this report titled “Recession: The Mother of Innovation” states as below: “Necessity may be the mother of invention. But could a recession be the mother of innovation? After all, many of the world’s enduring, multibillion-dollar corporations, from Disney (DIS) to Microsoft (MSFT), were founded during economic downturns. Generally speaking, operating costs tend to be cheaper in a recession. Talent

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"In Transit" Drug Seizures and TRIPS: UK Decision May Help Indian Companies

/ By / Uncategorized

The IPKat reports a very recent decision from the UK courts involving an attempted seizure of “in transit” goods. The brief facts are as below: Nokia Corporation v Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Revenue & Customs (HMRC) [2009] EWHC 1903 (Ch) Nokia petitioned the UK customs authorities (HMRC) to seize counterfeit cell phones (bearing the Nokia trademark) that had reached London’s Heathrow airport from Hong Kong en route to Colombia. HMRC refused and Nokia challenged the said refusal before the UK

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The 50 Most Influential People in IP

/ By / Others

Every year, Managing Intellectual Property publishes a list of the 50 most influential people in the field of Intellectual Property. It is not very often though that we find a mention! In a list that pans the globe, MIP’s list of the 50 most influential people includes politicians, academicians, in-house counsel and even the IP blogger! Starting with Google’s inhouse counsel, Rose Hagan, the list includes a strong Asian flavour with some notable names being Mr. Wu Handong (President, Zhongnan

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Roche vs Cipla: Tarceva Patent to be reviewed by Indian Supreme Court

/ By / Uncategorized

CH Unni of the Mint reports that Roche will soon be filing their appeal against the Delhi High Court order, which not only found against Roche, but also went on to subject Roche to costs of Rs 5 lakhs for alleged wrongful suppression of patent information. In this article, I am quoted as stating: “According to a patent law expert, the validity of Roche’s patent was in serious doubt. “In view of the existence of Gefatinib, an earlier known molecule,

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Indian Intellectual Property: The (Differential) "Price" of Protection

/ By / Uncategorized

I recently attended the IP Business Congress (IPBC) in Chicago organised by the well known IP magazine, IAM (Intellectual Asset Management), the brain child of the dynamic Joff Wild. Reviews of this conference can be found on the IAM blog. A more detailed note highlighting some of the key sessions was penned by Michael F Martin on Broken Symmetry, a blog that I just discovered and have come to love. However, I must admit that this is one of those

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