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

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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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WIPO’s TK talks fail after 9 years of negotiation

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A historic solar eclipse is ’round the bend, and like so many astronomical occurrences, bears ominous tidings. The movements of the skies were portended by the developments of a fortnight ago in Geneva almost eerily, when the fourteenth session of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), meeting in a midsummer week from June 29 to July 3, 2009, to discuss the future work in continuation of its nine years of existence, simply concluded thus:

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Part I: European Commission’s Competition Inquiry into the Pharmaceutical Sector

/ By / Competition Law, Patent

The investigation into the anti-competitive conditions in the pharmaceutical sector was begun by the European Union Commission on January 15, 2008. The Preliminary Report was released in December 2008 (Refer to previous post titled “Prelim report points to anti-competitive practices in EU’s Pharma industry”). The investigation; “Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry” launched by the Commission under Article 17 of Regulation 1/2003 (of 16 December 2002) on the implementation of the rules on Competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the

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SpicyIP Tidbits: IPO’s latest note on PoAs

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The IPO has issued procedural instructions that henceforth, until clear cut directions are made, patent and trademark applications may be accepted if accompanied with a request for filing a power of attorney (PoA) within one month. This is part of a series of changes that are being brought about in Patent Office Procedure by the Controller General over the past several months. [Added Later: I forgot to hyperlink earlier to this post by Shamnad on whether a delay in the

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Parliamentary Report on the Patent System – The Good, the Ugly and the Doubtful

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It recently came to our notice that the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce tabled its 88th Report on ‘Patents and Trademark System in India’ way back on 24th October, 2008. Usually Parliamentary Committees are quite participative and atleast attempt to invite as many stakeholders as possible in the discussion leading to the finalization of the report. This is all the more true when the Committee takes more than 3 years to complete such a basic report. However even

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Cipla Attracts NPPA’s Attention Again

/ By / Drug Regulation

Cipla has become an NPPA magnet given the number of times it has run into trouble with the latter which has yet again issued notices on alleged overpricing by Cipla of two drugs Salbutamol (prescribed for asthma) and Norfloxacin (prescribed for infections). According to the Economic Times, based on a filing by Cipla at the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company has received two demand notices, one for Rs 64.39 crore, which includes Rs 43.29 crore, allegedly overcharged, and interest of

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IPAB on a Roll: Ramkumar’s Dual SIM Patent Suspended

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Not content with having created its own law by ruling that “excessive pricing” can be used to reject a patent, the IPAB was at it again. On the 13th of July, in a remarkable development for intellectual property law, the IPAB suspended the operation of Ramkumar’s patent! And much like the Madras High Court reported earlier, it did so very crytically in a one para order that reads as below: “Counsel for the applicant present. Despite service of notice in

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Patent Office to issue Electronic Notifications

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The Consultative Working Group on Patents, Designs, Trade Marks system in India is constituted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The group is constituted to highlight the concerns of the Indian Industry in relation to Intellectual Property to the Government. Numerous changes have been brought about by the recommendations of the working group in the working of the intellectual property regime in India. To name a few; a separate wing was established in the Mumbai Patent

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The USIBC Report on Incremental Innovation: An Analysis

/ By / Others

Section 3(d) of the Patents Act, 1970 is a unique provision in the Act which seeks to prevent ever greening of patents by preventing the patenting of new forms of known substances which do not have enhanced efficacy. The provision was intensely debated upon and discussed in the context of the 2007 decision of the Madras High Court in the case of Novartis AG v. Union of India, (2007) 4 MLJ 1153. Novartis alleged that the use of expressions like

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Seeking Funding For Indian "Bayh Dole" and VIP Series

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As many of you may be aware, I organised a series of intellectual property and innovation lectures last term at the National Univeristy of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS). We’ve christened them as the VIP series (Venting Ideas on Intellectual Property). Some of the key speakers included: 1. Professor David Nimmer, one of the leading global copyright experts and revision author of the leading treatise “Nimmer on Copyright” spoke on the Google Copyright Disputes and their relevance to India. 2. Justice

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