Civil society sounds the war cry for affordable Herceptin – Roche’s worst nightmare comes true

A coalition of NGOs, breast-cancer-survivors and academics have shot off a letter to the Prime Minister of India demanding measures to ensure that Herceptin, the breast cancer drug sold by Roche is made more affordable for Indian women. The letter dated 5th of November, 2012 can be foundhere and does not appear to have been picked up by the mainstream media as of yet. You can join the Facebook group over here. The letter provides the Prime Minister...

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (November Week 4)

Another relatively quiet week in the IP world has passed us as we go deeper into holiday season. Having said that though, there have been a few very notable developments in this last week.Starting off, in what is definitely the highlight this last week, is the 5-6 hour hearing that Prof Shamnad Basheer received as an academic intervenor over a 2 day period in the much highlighted Novartis case presently before the Supreme Court. As Prashant...

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Bayer makes an attempt to nix NATCO’s CL for Nexavar

Image from hereBayer Corporation, which earlier this year lost its bid to oppose NATCO’s application for a compulsory license (CL) for its Nexavar patent, is now attempting to terminate the CL on the grounds that NATCO has violated the terms and conditions of the CL by exporting its generic version of Nexavar to Pakistan and China. The Controller General’s order was very clear that NATCO was licensed to market the drug only within the territory...

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BCCI blocks Photo Agencies in India-England Test Series: International News Agencies say "It's not Cricket!"

(Image taken from here)Well, the cricket enthusiasts among the readers of Spicy IP are no doubt glued to the daily reports of the India-England ongoing test series, with the series poised on 1-1 in a tantalizing manner. The traditionalists would undoubtedly swear by the attractions of a well-crafted test match news report (with stalwarts like Neville Cardus having created not a few rare gems in that field). However, it is not the fate of the entire...

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University of New Hampshire School of Law seeks Executive Director for the Franklin Pierce Center for IP

(Image from here)IP Job Opening: Some of the readers of Spicy IP may be interested to know of a new promising career position that has just opened with the University of New Hampshire (UNH) School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center). UNH is currently looking for an accomplished IP professional with administrative experience and expertise to serve as the Executive Director for the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. Profile...

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Madras High Court rules against ‘safe-harbour’ for ISPs – a victory for copyright owners

Image from hereThe Hinduand Medianama, have both recently reported on a judgment of the Madras High Court in the copyright infringement lawsuits filed by the copyright owners of ‘Dhammu’ & ‘3’ against 15 Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These are the lawsuits which led to the entire blocking of file-sharing websites on the suspicion that these websites were being used to distribute pirated copies of the newly released movies. Outraged internet...

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Prathiba Singh wins award for being the foremost female IP lawyer in the Asia region

We’ve recently been informed that seasoned IP litigator and founder of Singh & Singh, Ms. Prathiba Singh has been recognized as the foremost female IP lawyer by the Asia Women in Business Law Awards celebrated by the Euromoney Legal Media Group, which also publishes Managing IP. The entire list can be accessed over here.For those of your familiar with Prathiba Singh, you must know that she has participated in some of the most high-value IP litigation in the country including pharmaceutical patent litigation, trademark litigation and copyright...

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Off-topic: Press Release Journalism by the Times of India in the ESG-Monsanto case

Image from hereEarlier this year, on the 10 of May, 2010 one of India’ national newspapers, Hindu carried a first of its kind story alleging that its rival competitor and the largest selling English newspaper in the world, the Times of India was publishing advertisements for Monsanto’s Bt cotton crop as ‘news’ without informing its readers that the same was an advertisement – a phenomenon known as ‘paid news’ in India. I won’t get into the accuracy...

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SpicyIP Tidbit: ESG sues the Govt. of India & NBA for non-prosecution of Monsanto’s Indian subsidiary

Well, it finally happened. After crying itself hoarse for more than a year over the non-prosecution of Monsanto’s subsidiary Mahyco for alleged bio-piracy of biological resources related to Brinjal, the Bangalore based NGO – Environmental Support Group (ESG) has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Karnataka High Court. In this petition ESG has sued the National Biodiversity Authority, the Union of India, the Ministry of Environment...

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Del HC hits a sixer: The Boundaries of Copyright and Cricket

Our friends at Medianama have pointed us in the direction of one of the most superbly analysed IP judgments that I have read in a long time - Star India v. Piyush Agarwal (and other connected matters)The facts of the case are simple. Star India broadcasts matches organized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The defendants update their subscribers with the score and fall of wickets through text messages (SMSes).  The Plaintiffs...

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Dangers of ex-parte interim injunctions, in full display, in patent litigation between Issar Pharmaceuticals and Ind-Swift

Image from hereTime and again, we have on this blog highlighted the dangers of ex-parte interim injunctions in cases of pharmaceutical patent litigation. For its part the Delhi High Court has been relatively restrained in granting such ex-parte injunction in pharmaceutical patent litigation. However, there have been occasions on which some judges of the High Court do grant such orders, with little adherence to Supreme Court precedents on the point. In...

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A successful academic intervention before the Supreme Court in the Novartis - Glivec patent case

Image from hereAs the arguments in the now epic Novartis case draw to a close before the Supreme Court of India, I’m glad to report that the bench, consisting of Justice Alam & Justice Desai, gave Shamnad a patient and receptive hearing in his role, as an amicus curiae or ‘academic intervener’ in Supreme Court parlance. As our readers may remember, Shamnad had filed an intervention application before the Supreme Court last year in order...

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (November Week 3)

With the country celebrating Diwali on 13 November, there have been a spate of public and Court holidays and as a result a much quieter week on the IP front.Prashant started us off by doing this very interesting analytical post on the treatment of patients with Hepatitis C with Pegasys. Questioning the small percentage of patients who actually could afford the high price of the drug, Prashant suggests that the business model of innovator companies...

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