WHY NOVARTIS NEEDS TO CHALLENGE THE MADRAS HIGH COURT JUDGEMENT

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Businesslawyer.in, a fabulous initiative by students of the National Law School of India Univ (Bangalore), my alma mater, carried a short note of mine on the Novartis case. I’ve reproduced it below: “Friends, Indians, Countrymen, lend me your ears; 
I come to bury the Madras High Court judgment, not to praise it. The Madras High Court decided a landmark case involving Novartis’ famed anti- cancer drug, Glivec. Ignoring the bard’s dictum that brevity is the soul of wit, the court …

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‘MYSORE MALLIGE’ GETS GI PROTECTION

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karnataka scores once again in registration of a ‘geographical indication’ Of late Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in India have been getting their fair share of bad publicity. Amongst others, the Novartis dispute, as also the yoga patenting dispute were especially damaging to the image of ‘intellectual property’ in the Indian psyche. But as the Prime Minister Dr. Singh (or was it Yeats?) famously said ‘If winter comes, can spring be far behind?’ So true for the world of Indian IP …

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SPICY TIDBITS

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SPICY TIDBITS Piracy and a “rare act of intelligence” According to Remix Theory Warner Brothers’ China division, in a rare act of intelligence on the part of a major media company, demonstrated significant savvy last year when they began selling cheap, legitimate, high quality DVDs of movies within days of the theatrical release. By pricing the discs at around 12 yuan (approximately US$1.50), Warner is hoping to make cost a non-issue, thus allowing them to compete in one area where …

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S. 3(d) like provision under the proposed “Quality Affordable Medicines Act” in the Philippines

/ By / Patent

According to recent news articles (here and here), the Senate in the Philippines has passed a new “Quality Affordable Medicines Act” (Senate Bill No. 1658) (the text of the Bill can be found here) that seeks, inter alia, to amend patent laws to allow importation of cheaper drugs, support the development of local generic industries, authorize the President to impose price ceilings on life saving drugs (in India, this role is played by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority – for …

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Potter-troubles over for Puja organisers

/ By / Copyright

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition by J K Rowling and Warner Brothers against a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area allegedly replicating Hogwarts Castle. In a brief order, the court refused to restrain the Durga Puja committee from using the statues and images of Harry Potter characters during the festival, TOI reports. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, however, made it clear that the court’s order would be applicable till October 26, saying, “any (further) use of …

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NOVARTIS SAGA: MAKING A MOCKERY OF THE IPAB!

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CH Unnikrishnan, a journalist with LiveMint, who is gaining reputation as one of the most sophisticated writers in patent matters reports: “The Union government has told the Madras high court, which is hearing a petition filed by Swiss drug major Novartis AG challenging the appointment of former patent controller S. Chandrasekharan on the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), that it is ready to make a revision in the structure of the board. Novartis is challenging the Chennai patent office’s decision …

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SpicyIP Guest Series: Sudhir Syal on Creative Commons

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Sudhir Syal inaugurates our guest post series by writing on “Creative Commons”. For those interested in more details on the Creative Commons Movement in India, please watch this podcast featuring Lawrence Liang, Legal Lead, CC India. Also, if any of you are interested in writing guest posts, please let me know. Creative Commons… What’s that again? “An organization that has framed a new code of laws to promote a culture of freedom, openness and creativity.” “A spin-off from the open …

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Big Mac’s new India strategy – what about IP?

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The Economic Times recently reported on McDonalds’ recent redirection away from children and towards teenagers, adults and even the elderly. This calls for a major reassessment of the branding and IP Strategy. We’re all aware of the relatively recent “I’m lovin it” brand – but what else could McDonalds do from an IP perspective to make the most of the refocus? Interestingly, the refocus hasn’t yet hit McDonads’ India website yet – when I recently looked at it, Ronald McDonald …

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HOLLYWOOD v. BOLLYWOOD – ‘PARTNER’ IN CRIME

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SPOTTING THE THIN RED LINE BETWEEN CULTURAL BORROWING & COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT I am not quite sure as to how Bollywood got its name; my favourite theory is that after decades of copying/borrowing Hollywood storylines, scripts, screenplays the Bollywood industry, in a bid to acknowledge their Western gurus as their sources of inspiration, sought to name themselves after their gurus. Indeed a fitting guru-dakshina! For those uninitiated to the world of Bollywood – it’s a term used to describe the popular …

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Challenging Software and Business Method Patents in India

/ By / Others

Readers will recollect that SpicyIP reported on a “computer implemented” business method patent filed by the Center for Good Governance (CGG), a government undertaking based out of Hyderabad. For those that may not have time to click on the link above, here is the abstract of the application: “A web-based legal case status management system for tracking, updating and retrieving case-related information and method thereof. A single server configured to house a data repository server in communication with a plurality …

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