Spicy Tidbits: Animal testing – the quandary

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The Central Government has put up a proposal for an Institute for Alternatives to Animal Experimentation in the 11th Plan. The Indian Council of Medical Research is working alternative ways of testing and substitute technologies despite the fact that animal testing is a requirement for various stages of drug trials and scientists are pushing more relaxed norm. Besides, the DBT has also launched steps to develop in vitro screening system for screening plant extracts having anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-amoebiasis, anti- leishmaniasis, […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Indian Gaming Industry and IP creation

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The gaming industry is a $10 billion industry in the US and India seems to be the next favourite destination for major players, domestic and international. With the Indian mobile gaming industry, according to NASSCOM, projected to rake in $300 million by 2009, several major players have wisely decided to use IP creation as an effective tool of harnessing the opportunities. DQ entertainment, the Hyderabad-based animation and gaming company has announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Japan’s THINK Corporation,

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Advantage India on NAMA

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India lodged a protest last week that the NAMA agenda was skewed in favor of developed nations. It had warned that any attempt by the EU and parties to further talks that excluded Indian interest could end in an impasse and stall further negotiations. The VOI (voice of India) has yielded the intended result.! Refer to Spicyip post for more on this. The Revised draft on the Modalities on Agriculture and NAMA (non- agriculture market access) was circulated this week,

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SpicyIP Tidbit: “Civil” Scientist

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Whoever thought babus could move out of their plush offices to contribute to the development of science and technology, breaking stereotypes in the process? Here’s a civil servant with a difference. Principal Secretary of Civil Aviation Department of Jharkhand, A.K.Pandey has patented a rotary bi-piston internal combustion engine which can be used in automobile, aircraft and railway engines. Instead of a reciprocating movement of the piston in conventional engines, the bi-piston rotates. It comes as no surprise that Pandey holds

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Reality Check

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Is the general level of industrial progress an accurate index of a State’s IP awareness? The answer in the affirmative is not forthcoming on account of facts to the contrary. Gujarat, which has consistently performed well on the economic front, seems to lag behind when it comes to IP protection. An article from sify.com indicates that the rate of patent filing in Gujarat has not increased despite the State government slashing patent filing charges by 50%. In fact, patent applications

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Spicy Tidbits: Medical Devices Regulation Bill formulated

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A draft Medical Devices Regulation Bill has been formulated for the classification of such medical devices which may not be covered by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The Bill provides for the creation of a Medical Device Regulatory Authority which has been empowered with extensive powers relating to fining and imprisoning defaulters. With a diverse range and multitude of medical devices are in use, which aremanufactured using a wide variety of technologies with the result that forensuring the safety of

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Cross Retaliation at the WTO: Why I think WIPO is Wrong

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Readers will recollect an earlier post, on a unique WTO remedy involving the suspension of IP rights proposed by Antigua. Read the post here and see my article here, suggesting ways to implement this IP suspension (cross retaliation) model. A WIPO Official recently suggested that such IP suspension will not work, since Antigua will end up contravening its independent obligations under the Berne and Paris Conventions. An ICTSD newsletter reports: “A senior official of the World Intellectual Property Organization last

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SpicyIP Tidbit: And now tobacco is medicine.

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The latest news is the Central Tobacco Research Institute has patented ‘Solanesol’- a medical substance from tobacco. This was after a collabarative effort with the Central Drug Research Institute. The substance is used as a cure for cardiac insufficiency, muscular dystrophy, anaemia, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and liver injury, and hoped to be used as an important component of anti-diabetic and an anti-cancer drug. The full article can be found here.

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SpicyIP Tidbit: And the Flame continues to rage…

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The details of the Madras High Court order restraining TVS are available here. The HC has said that Bajaj has established a prima facie case in its favour owing to the fact that its patent was unchallenged for a considerable period. I believe this was an apprehension rightly expressed by Manisha Singh Nair in her article. TVS Motors seems to have contended that use of twin spark plugs in a cylinder of small bore (diameter) size does not amount to

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Spicy Tidbit: Pashmina v. Basmati

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Here’s an encouraging article I came across recently. BBC News reports that India and Pakistan are working jointly to register a GI for Basmati rice. The implications of such cooperation are extremely profitable as Basmati accounts for more than half the rice consumed in Europe and the Middle East. As the Indian share in the Basmati market has increased in the past few years Pakistan has suffered and so this GI will be a real aid to their market share.

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