India continues to be on US Priority Watch List

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The Economic Times reports that India and 8 others have been placed on the “Priority Watch List” this year. India has been on this list for a number of years and its continued inclusion does not come as a surprise. Readers will recall that Jayant (Spicy IP) had covered India and Thailand’s inclusion on the Priority Watch List in a detailed post last year, and had pointed out that “A country wise analysis of countries in United States Trade Representative […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Minister to ensure that reduced excise duty to reflect in drug prices

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The Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan, who heads the pharmaceutical advisory forum has instructed drug companies that they will have to reduce their prices by atleast 4.58% since the excise duty on drugs has been scaled back from 16% to 8%. He also promised to strengthen the infrastructure of the pricing watch-dog – the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) – by introducing a 24 hour helpline for customers who want to complain about drug companies over-charging on

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SpicyIP Tidbits: Indian Drug Regulatory System Forced to Swallow the Bitter Pill by WHO

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The Indian drug regulatory system is at the receiving end of a withering scorn from the WHO which lambasted the Indian authorities for the lackadaisical approach which pervades the drug approval mechanism. Coming from the WHO, these scathing remarks are extremely damaging for a nation which boasts of being home to the world’s fourth largest pharmaceutical market by volume and thirteenth by value and probably point to the need for some honest soul searching. What is even more dangerous is

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NKC Vice Chairman: Bayh Dole Bill was Shrouded in Secrecy

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TV Padma of the Science and Development Network (Sci Dev) has this report on the proposed Indian Bayh Dole bill. As per her report, the bill was first recommended by the National Knowledge Commission (NKC). Pushpa Bhargava (who resigned as Vice Chairman from the NKC last year) is quoted as alleging that there was considerable secrecy around the bill and that “every attempt was made to circumvent an open discussion and debate over it..” Given that Pushpa Bhargava had an

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SpicyIP Tidbits: Mint Story on Patent Loophole in India

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CH Unni writes a front page story in the Mint on section 107A(b) and the possibility that this ambiguous provision could be strategically exploited by Indian generic companies to import drugs from Bangladesh to India. Readers will recollect that SpicyIP ran a couple of posts on this topic. See here and here. In fact, this post here generated the most number of comments (about 25 comments so far) that the blog has seen so far!! For those interested in the

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SpicyIP Tidbit: The Railways patent!

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In a major development that will open new vistas for the Konkan Railway, the Anti-Collision Device (ACD) developed by Konkan Railway, has been granted a patent in China, Russia and Singapore, opening up possibilities of export of the technology in future. It was first successfully tested by the Konkan Railway on the North East Frontier Railway covering a route of 1,924 km. Konkan Railway had applied for patents across the world in several countries and this grant follows the patent

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World IP Day: From "Faith" Based IP to "Fact" Based IP

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As many of our readers know, today is the World Intellectual Property Day, a day that was first marked 8 years ago by WIPO as an occasion to commemorate and celebrate “not only the enormous power of human creativity, but also the intellectual property rights that help to fuel and channel it, making it such an important driving force for economic, cultural and social development.” SpicyIP wishes to celebrate this special day with all its readers, who have done so

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Appeals Court rules on two issues in the Roche-Cipla litigation

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The Mint and the ET report that a division bench of the Delhi High Court, hearing Roche’s appeal against the judgment of the single judge, have restained Cipla from exporting Erlocip to any country where Roche already has a patent for the drug. This is a mere restatement of the obvious and more over its a moot point as to whether the issue of export is even within the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court. If Cipla does export to

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Indian Filmmaker complains about American Piracy.

/ By / Copyright

And in a patent heavy blog of late, seems like copyright infringement is making a comeback into the spotlight. And how! If you thought only the Indian enforcement systems were complained about, this news report may indicate a switcheroo! Recently, on April 22, 2008, the anti-piracy drive from India took its battle and made representations before the US Congress. This was done to mark World IP Day, in recognition of talented creators around the globe. In a market, where Indian

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Indian Intellectual Property: The Transitition from Saraswati to Lakshmi

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Peter Ollier, Asia Editor of MIP (Managing Intellectual Property) has a brilliant story in the latest issue of the MIP on the Indian IP regime. For those of you familiar with the MIP, you will recollect that Peter has been one of the most sophisticated and well informed writers on the Indian IP scene. To access the article, click here. If you are a first time user, you can register for a free subscription and access the full version of

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