Its All In the Genes!

There is enough and more reason to celebrate every morning-celebration in lieu of the totality of existence and the existence of the individual self. The Guru of Joy, Sri Sri of the Art of living fame established the U.S.P ‘I belong’…… The simple ritual practiced at the commencement of every Art of Living session where the participants greet each other with a resplendent ‘I belong’ , on deeper analysis comes with a profound metaphysical and scientific import. The ‘cosmic connect’ …

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NOVARTIS MOVES HIGH COURT TO REMOVE CHANDRASEKHARAN

As anticipated by an earlier SPICY IP post, the Economic Times now reports that Novartis filed a writ petition before the High Court challenging the decision of the IPAB to keep Chandrasekharan on the panel. Not a particularly huge fan of “I told you so…”, but SPICY IP had cautioned against the very transfer of the case itself to the IPAB in one of the earliest posts, stating that this was a bad move. We had first noted in April …

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BUILDING AN INNOVATION ECO SYSTEM IN INDIA

An excellent article in the Deccan Herald on the need for building an innovation ecosystem in India by NASSCOM’s VP, Rajdeep Sahrawat. As Sahrawat rightly notes, the ability to take “risks” is a very important factor in incentivising innovation. And this may perhaps explain why despite our software prowess, we are still not known for any significant “innovative” IT products. Rather, the easy money that comes with our “services” model in the IT sector (where we build products for others …

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NANDO’S Vs NANDU: SPICY TRADEMARK ISSUE

A note on a recent trademark case from a guest blogger, Akshat Pande, an IP practitioner from Delhi. The note pertains to a famous UK chain, “Nando’s”, that serves absolutely delectable chicken, –better, some would say, than “finger licking wares” dished out by the good ole’ Colonel. Though registered as an Irish company, it’s really Portugese cuisine with some significant South African roots. Anyway, here goes: “I was desperately waiting for Nando’s to open up in India as I have …

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Super Basmati hits rough weather

Today’s Times of India reports (and correctly, for a change) that the Pakistani Government has allegedly sent a notice to the Indian Government objecting to the latter’s registration of Super Basmati for export. Finally the press seems to have understood that its a GI registration sought by India and not a patent, which is being objected to by Pakistan. The detailed news report is available here.

IP AND INNOVATION: MAKING TRIPS WORK FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

As a follow up to my earlier post on TRIPS and how best to use “IP” strategically to enhance technological development for developing countries, here is a post on a blog titled “Unheard Voices” dealing with issues in Bangladesh. Intellectual Property Rights: Making Them Work For Us Posted by Amer under Foreign Matters , South Asia “This is a somewhat dated issue, but I recently came across this wonderfully well document example by Abul Kalam Azad of how the WTO …

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"Kitney Aadmi The?" – The Sholay story (P.S. Don’t believe what the reporters tell you)

After Shamnad’s recent post on the RGV Nishabd case pertaining to copyright in film titles, it is but logical that I tell you the “Sholay” story. But before I begin, let me clarify at the outset that one of the most settled principles of Indian copyright jurisprudence is that there is “no copyright in film titles”. Yet our misinformed press labours on, doggedly exposing their ignorance to their hapless readers. Go ahead, I encourage you to read the story in …

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PATENTING PHARMA SUBSTANCES: INDIA AND TRIPS

I came across this very incisive piece on pharma patents, TRIPS and India by Prabir Purkayastha in People’s Democracy, a publication of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).. An engineer and a science activist, Prabir is one of the founding members of Delhi Science Forum. Whilst I agree with most of what Prabir states, I have a slight reservation with the highly contentious NCE (New Chemical Entity) vs Salt form distinction and the notion that we can somehow exclude all …

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Patent, Trademark Filing goes the E-way!

In keeping with the trend of adopting all things, ‘E’ and making systems more time e-fficient and e-z…. the Indian Government has introduced the e-filing system for patents and trademarks. E-savvy indeed! An article in The Hindu reports The Government has launched a facility for e-filing of patent and trademark applications to speed up the process of securing exclusive rights over a product or trading symbol. “With the launch of e-filing facilities, applicants can file their patent and trademark applications …

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Novartis’ objection to Chandrasekharan dimissed by IPAB

Pursuant to my earlier postings on this issue, the IPAB has dismissed Novartis’s objection to the presence of Chandrasekharan as a technical member on the IPAB panel. As many of us expect, this decision is likely to be appealed–and apart from more biiling hours to lawyers involved in this highly politicized case, the delay will do no one any good!! I haven’t seen the IPAB order yet–but it does seem like Novartis has a good case in trying to get …

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