Mainstreaming delinkage
At the 67th World Health Assembly Last month saw the occurrence of a development which, even if small and under-reported, I would consider to be of significant importance – when the 67th World Health...
View ArticleIndia on International Piracy Watch-list; Reasons include presence on watch-list
In yet another unilaterally decided list, a caucus of US Congressmen have named India as one of four countries on their “International Creativity and Theft-prevention Caucus Watchlist”. The other three...
View ArticleNatco vs Abraxis: Patent Win, but Regulatory Struggle
On June 18th, 2014, the Indian Patent Office, for the second time, denied a patent to the anti cancer drug Abraxane manufactured by US- Based Abraxis BioSciences. The first rejection by the IPO was...
View ArticleRemembering Hitesh Barot
A few weeks ago, I’d emailed our SpicyIP subscriber group on the tragic passing away of Hitesh Barot, a leading in-house IP counsel. The India Business Law Journal (IBLJ) put together a wonderful piece...
View ArticleShort Questionnaires for Patent Agents and Software Engineers
Mr. Ravindra Chingale is a Ph.D. research scholar at the National Law University Delhi and is also a consultant to the Ministry of Law and Justice. He is carrying out research for his project ‘Impact...
View Article$15 million prize money given to Mathematicians
Forbes reports that the Breakthrough Prize for Mathematics recently announced its first winners. Mathematics, though a fundamental bedrock of science, is often ignored by many including the Royal...
View ArticleGuest Post: SCOTUS shoots down Aereo in American Broadcasting Companies Inc...
Aereo is a company in the US which broadcasted television programmes over the internet for a monthly rental fee. On 25th June, 2014, SCOTUS held that Aereo’s model amounted to a “public performance” of...
View ArticleSpicyIP Tidbit: India ratifies the Marrakesh Treaty for the Visually Impaired
In an encouraging step towards promoting accessibility among the differently abled, India became the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who...
View ArticlePlain Packaging and the WTO: IP Issues
France is considering joining the ranks of countries that impose plain packaging requirements on tobacco products sold in their country. Plain packaging is the practice of packaging cigarettes and...
View ArticleCable, Copyright and the Consumer: The Cases of Aereo and Jadoo TV
Recently, the US Supreme Court held that Aereo Inc’s innovative business model of airing cable signals through tiny personal antennae to individual subscribers over the internet violated the copyright...
View ArticleSpicyIP Weekly Review (23rd to 29th June, 2014)
Devika started the week off with a report on the 136th Meeting of the INTA. She emphasised on the fact that there was a sizeable Indian representation at the meeting and that some of the most pressing...
View ArticleLaw Commission’s Consultation Paper on Media Law-Responses
The Law Commission of India floated a Consultation Paper on Media Law in May 2014 to elicit the views of all the stakeholders. The Law Commission is looking into the following questions: 1. Social...
View ArticleEC can’t agree on IP norms but can agree on funding-bans for developing...
On 1st and 2nd July, the European Commission has put out two significant, yet contradicting IPR related press releases. While the first one talks about possible funding bans for developing countries...
View ArticleSpicyIP Weekly Review (30th June- 6th July)
The SpicyIP story of the week is Thomas reporting that India has ratified the Marrakesh Treaty for the Visually Impaired. The treaty aims to increase the access that differently abled people have to...
View ArticleSpicyIP Tidbit: India’s DBT and DST Call for Comments on Draft Open Access...
India’s Departments of Biotechnology (DBT) and Science and Technology (DST) have come out with a draft policy for ensuring that the output of public funded research is published in a freely accessible...
View ArticleAshok Kumar Goes on a Rampage – 219 Websites Ordered Down in the FIFA...
By now, everyone must have heard of the order passed by the Delhi High Court regarding the blocking of websites for allegedly infringing FIFA World Cup content. For those of you who haven’t, Multi...
View ArticleSpicyIP Tidbit: WIPO releases database for economics of IP
WIPO recently released a very useful database of academic literature on the economics of IP. In their words, WIPO’s Economics Literature Database provides an overview of key academic literature that...
View ArticleSpicyIP Tidbit: Disagreements at the WIPO’s SCCR
The WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) was for the second time this year held up by disagreements between developed and developing countries. IP-Watch reports that the...
View ArticleIndian Budget 2014 – Highlights & Comments
The Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley presented the Budget for 2014-15 (“Budget 2014”) yesterday. I intend to highlight the relevant proposals and make some comments in this regard. Kindly note...
View ArticleAereo fights back by asserting itself as a Cable Company without Cables(!)
Survival instinct prevailed when Aereo recently embraced the US Supreme Court’s ruling which had declared its transmission services illegal in June. Readers may recall that the Court held Aereo’s...
View Article