The Haitian Plight and Traditional Knowledge: A Promise Unfulfilled?

/ By / Uncategorized

As we watch with horror at the plight of many in Haiti, the last thing on our minds is the nexus between traditional knowledge and the sad events that unfolded in the wake of a devastating earthquake almost a month back. According to this piece in the Huffington Post, there is indeed a significant nexus here. Apparently, the traditional medicinal wisdom of the Shamanic healers from the Amazonian forests was leveraged to create a drug, Crofelemer whose properties could be […]

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IPR Summit 2010

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In an effort to enhance education in the filed of intellectual property law ,George Washington University Law School in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been hosting the IPR Summit since 2004.The Summit from its inception has attracted stellar IP experts ,academcians, policy makers and stalwarts from the IP industry. The 7th edition of this prestigious Summit will flag off on 14 February,2010 at New Delhi. A moot court is scheduled on 14 February,2010 at National Law School,

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Indian "Bayh Dole" Problems: Some Resources

/ By / Patent

In an earlier post, I linked up to an editorial in the Mint highlighting some of the key problems with the Indian Bayh Dole bill. I also referred to a paper where I elaborate on these issues. Some of you wrote to state that you had difficulties downloading it from the SpicyIP website. I have therefore now uploaded it to the SSRN website and you can access it by clicking on this link (and then proceeding to click the “download”

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The National Biodiversity Authority invites comments on draft amendments

/ By / Biological Diversity

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), the statutory authority, under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has put out a delightfully public notice requesting public participation and comments on the following: (i)International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing;(ii)Evolving sui generis system for the protection of Traditional Knowledge; &(iii)Amendments to the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules, 2004. The public notice along with the relevant reference material can be accessed here. I use the words ‘delightfully public notice’ because in sharp

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Abbott’s "Humira" Patent Unilaterally Revoked by Indian Patent Office

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In a rather bizarre incident, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) granted a patent to Abbott Laboratories relating to Humira, its best selling biologic meant to cure severe forms of arthritis. And then proceeded to revoke it a month later on its own accord! On receiving the rather pithy “cancellation” order from the IPO, a visibly shaken Abbott approached the Delhi High Court. Justice Muralidhar promptly stayed this unusual action by the IPO and issued a notice to it, returnable by

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Asked not to Dial : Just Dial Accuses Askme of Data Theft

/ By / Uncategorized

Hot off the  press is an ex parte injunction granted by the Delhi High Court to Just Dial, the multipurpose local search engine giant, which alleged that Infomedia 18 Limited, a group company of TV 18, had substantially copied its database and was displaying the same on its website askme.in . Just Dial alleged a case of copyright infringement with respect to the valuable database which has been a result of the extensive research carried out for 14 years. Just

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SpicyIP Tidbit: ‘Victory’ against Biopiracy in the Pelargonium Patent case

/ By / Biological Diversity

Our older readers will remember Aysha having blogged about the Pelargonium patent case in 2008. Almost two years later, in what is being hailed as a victory against bio-piracy, the patent granted to German based Schwabe Pharmaceuticals for the anti-bronchitis drug after a ruling by the European Patent Office has been withdrawn on the grounds that the same did not amount to a “discovery” since the uses of the plant were known sufficiently in advance (having been used extensively by

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Madras High Court mulls the not so glittery tale of "Thangam"

/ By / Copyright

The High Court of Madras has in this judgment (the cause title of which I absolutely cannot locate!), decided the application for interim injunction seeking restrain against an alleged case of copyright infringement with a focus on the evidence of proof of infringement vis-a-vis ingredients mentioned in Order 39 of the CPC. Briefly put, in this case, the Plaintiff had alleged that on 26th June 2008, it had been assigned the rights by one of the Defendants to produce a

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Time to Act on ACTA

/ By / Copyright

The shroud of secrecy around the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has arguably become a little more transparent during the past 2 years of negotiation, albeit due more to leaks more than positive acts towards transparency. (Readers may recall our previous posts on ACTA) Civil societies, nonprofits and blogs have also played an important part in this by constantly questioning the suspicious nature of its negotiations, not to mention the (leaked) provisions themselves. The agreement, which is supposed to be completed

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Okay Jurassic Jelly’s design trophy in Delhi HC

/ By / Trademark

Design matters don’t come up frequently enough, but when they do, they offer immense entertainment, like the case I report on today. “No application of mind” by Design Registry In his December 2009 order, Justice S N Dhingra was made to ponder upon the novelty in the design of a cup for jelly, which the plaintiffs argued was proprietary. While it was primarily a trademark infringement matter, the judge also had time to reprimand the Registrar of Designs for showing

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