For the readers of Spicy IP, we bring yet another sum-up of IP news and events in the past few days to mark the festive season.
It started with Rajiv coming up with the list of the 102 decisions that the Controller’s Office has come up with in November, 2012.
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This was followed by a guest post from Snigdha Roy, a 3rd Year student from GNLU, as the first installment in the Spicy IP Fellowship post-series. She discussed some of the problems that modern copyright law has presented to the print disabled and commented upon the mixed success of efforts with the new copyright amendments on the one hand and the failure of the International Treaty of the Blind to make any headway on the other. Swaraj followed this up with a subsequent look into the various reports and opinions about the treaty.
Rajiv then came up with a penetrating analysis of an IPAB decision (Bayer v. UOI), wherein the practice of filing multiple applications for the same invention and calling them as divisional applications was formally put to an end.
Rajiv then came up with a penetrating analysis of an IPAB decision (Bayer v. UOI), wherein the practice of filing multiple applications for the same invention and calling them as divisional applications was formally put to an end.
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This was followed by Prashant reporting an US move of appointing Justice Sri Krishna, a retired judge of the Indian Supreme Court, as a neutral witness in the Cadila Healthcare Ltd. Case to render an opinion on the position of ‘in-house’ counsel in the Indian legal system and whether the communications involving such a counsel were confidential under Indian law.
Prashant then came up a brief examination of the validity of the claim by Big Pharma companies that they are targeting only the prosperous middle class which can afford their drugs and not the poor of the country, to whom they supply their drugs free under their patient assistance programs.
A post was then put up extending the eligibility of the Spicy IP Fellowship Program to all interested persons and not only students and recent graduates.
A guest post by Amshula Prakash, a 4th Year student from NLSIU, analyzing certain aspects of the Apple-Samsung tussle, was the next in line, as a part of the Fellowship post-series.
Another guest post in the Fellowship series followed forth, this time by Madhulika Vishwanathan, an experienced patent agent, critiquing the Guidelines for Processing of Patent Applications relating to Traditional Knowledge and Biological Material.
A post of mine was to follow this, on a recent market analysis by Business Standard on the adverse repercussions of the Indian government’s decision to waive the requirement of payment of such royalty by Indian companies to multinational corporations to be subjected to prior government approval (by the Project Approval Board in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion), instead allowing such payments up to any amount by the automatic route, with an intention to promote modern technology transfer to India.
Shan then came up with a brief bird’s eye view of the salient features of the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy, 2012 that is due to replace the Drug Policy of 1994 and the industrial reactions to the same.
Finally, Mathews put up an insightful post stating how Section 27 of Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 allows filing of rectification application on a ground of public interest as per the Supreme Court judgment in Hardie Trading Ltd. and Anr. v. Addisons Paint and Chemicals Ltd. and the IPAB order in the Payyannur Ring matter.
International Developments
In true Christmas spirit, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association team and Swedish game developer Markus “Notche” Persson have donated $500,000 to a digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation to “fix” what Cuban says is a broken patent system.
Disney won the contest of its trademark rights over the Winnie the Pooh characters against Stephen Slesinger Inc. before the US Appeals Court.
National Football Scouting Inc., the scouting arm of the National Football League lost a copyright case in the US District Court of Tacoma against a Washington State resident, who wrote about its annual scouting reports for a sports-oriented website.
Prashant then came up a brief examination of the validity of the claim by Big Pharma companies that they are targeting only the prosperous middle class which can afford their drugs and not the poor of the country, to whom they supply their drugs free under their patient assistance programs.
A post was then put up extending the eligibility of the Spicy IP Fellowship Program to all interested persons and not only students and recent graduates.
A guest post by Amshula Prakash, a 4th Year student from NLSIU, analyzing certain aspects of the Apple-Samsung tussle, was the next in line, as a part of the Fellowship post-series.
Another guest post in the Fellowship series followed forth, this time by Madhulika Vishwanathan, an experienced patent agent, critiquing the Guidelines for Processing of Patent Applications relating to Traditional Knowledge and Biological Material.
A post of mine was to follow this, on a recent market analysis by Business Standard on the adverse repercussions of the Indian government’s decision to waive the requirement of payment of such royalty by Indian companies to multinational corporations to be subjected to prior government approval (by the Project Approval Board in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion), instead allowing such payments up to any amount by the automatic route, with an intention to promote modern technology transfer to India.
Shan then came up with a brief bird’s eye view of the salient features of the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy, 2012 that is due to replace the Drug Policy of 1994 and the industrial reactions to the same.
Finally, Mathews put up an insightful post stating how Section 27 of Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 allows filing of rectification application on a ground of public interest as per the Supreme Court judgment in Hardie Trading Ltd. and Anr. v. Addisons Paint and Chemicals Ltd. and the IPAB order in the Payyannur Ring matter.
International Developments
In true Christmas spirit, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association team and Swedish game developer Markus “Notche” Persson have donated $500,000 to a digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation to “fix” what Cuban says is a broken patent system.
Disney won the contest of its trademark rights over the Winnie the Pooh characters against Stephen Slesinger Inc. before the US Appeals Court.
National Football Scouting Inc., the scouting arm of the National Football League lost a copyright case in the US District Court of Tacoma against a Washington State resident, who wrote about its annual scouting reports for a sports-oriented website.
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| Image from here |
Microsoft has won a U.K. ruling invalidating Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.’s patent protection for technology synchronizing message statuses across multiple devices on ground of obviousness. On another turn of events, Microsoft has been revealed to own a peculiar patent that lets one hug someone over the internet using a robotic pillow!
A group including giants like Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon has agreed to buy patents from bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co. for about $525 million, gaining the right to use the digital technology to capture and share photos.
In the Samsung-Apple saga, the EU is probing whether Samsung violated agreements to license key patents to other mobile-phone manufacturers on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, known as FRAND.
The US attaché stationed in Geneva has recently submitted a report accusing local NGOs operating at the WTO and UN agencies of efforts to undermine IP.
On a welcome turn of events, China has announced a legislative amendment being under way to crack down on "malicious" trademark registrations, which have allowed local companies to misuse well-known names and brands.
Finally, at the close of the 28th session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications meeting under the WIPO aegis, dedicated to the future treaty on industrial design law and practice, delegates have agreed to continue working on the draft, as well as pay heed to the divergent views on how to integrate technical assistance and capacity building into the treaty.
That's all for now, readers. We'll get back to you once again with the review before the new year begins. Till then, happy reading!
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