SupremeCourt

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

IPO vs IPAB: IT Prowess and Transparency?

Posted on 11:38 AM by Unknown
In a post written around a month ago, we'd wailed our hearts out at a rather pitiable IPAB website:

"Any of you accessing the IPAB website will know how incredibly difficult it is to find orders! Clearly the IPAB website needs a lot of revamping if they are serious about transparency and ensuring that their pronouncements are made easily accessible to the public. Given that India is often touted as an IT super power, this is a shame and the government must immediately make resources available to the IPAB to revamp its shoddy website!"

Well it turns out that the website is on its way to becoming more user-friendly and accessible. Just two days prior to the inimitable Justice Sridevan retiring, the IPAB website has been given a much needed face lift. 

The homepage now states:

"IPAB is very glad to announce that a vibrant, user-friendly new website with the url www.ipabindia.in has been launched by the Hon’ble Chairman Smt. Justice Prabha Sridevan on 6th August, 2013. The new-look website packs in a lot of features including search string operations. The migration of data from the existing website is expected to take about a fortnight or so. In order to make the transition of the website smooth, IPAB will continue to host the existing website till the new website is fully loaded with the entire data available on the existing website. The new website will go a long way in fulfilling the expectations of the users with regard to finding the relevant information easily." 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond (well, not exactly, since they are meant to bat on the side of helping improve the IP ecosystem), the present Controller General Chaitanya Prasad continues to ignore email after email of mine pointing to several errors in his patent database. Forgetting that he answers to the term of "public servant", his rather "masterly" tone appears to suggest that he is doing us a big favour by even considering our request that he do his job well. To be fair to Prasad, he redressed some of the issues outlined in our petition that was submitted to him in January this year, but some of the major issues have gone unaddressed (such as decision date related errors or the fact that very few section 3(d) cases show up on a section search). He'd promised to come back on all of this by April, but my emails to him in April went unanswered. This apathy is particularly worrying, for these were a very focussed set of issues that we raised, amenable to easy and timely fixing. 

For those interested, here is the link to the petition we submitted in January, along with comments noting the various errors that have been fixed (as of today) by Prasad and his team. 

As we'd noted in a petition to the Prime Minister when we began our transparency campaign several years ago: "...a website detailing comprehensive patent information, including patent office decisions will create more transparency and make the IPO more accountable. It will also equip stakeholders with timely information on patents. This will in turn lead to a more informed use of the patent system and better policy suggestions."

Time to petition the PM again to take the patent database and transparency issue seriously! So for those of you peeved at the present state of affairs, please email me with your specific peeves, and we'll prepare a comprehensive petition. Given the fresh smell of looming elections and the vain hope that esoteric patent creatures might constitute enough of a vote bank threat, the time to knock is now. And we're not even asking for too much. Simply that the government live upto its reputation of an IT superpower and foster more accessible patent knowledge. 

ps: thanks much to Shouvik and Sai Vinod for their work on the petition and for checking the current status of errors as of today.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in Database, Patent, Transparency | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • IPAB on Payyannur Ring
    [*S lightly long post] Background: The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (“ IPAB ”), in its recent order in SubhashJewellery v. Payyan...
  • Guest Post: Intermediary liability in defamation cases - Parle, Mouthshut & Visakha cases to clarify the law
    Chaitanya Ramachandran, who has blogged for us previously over here and here , has sent us this excellent guest post analyzing the extent of...
  • IP Research Assistant position at IIT, Madras
    Feroz Ali Khader, MHRD IP Chair at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, is looking for research assistants to work on various is...
  • Dorling Kindersley v. Sanguine Technical Publishers
    A recent Delhi High Court order passed on 21 January, 2013  with respect to copyright licensing has come to our notice. An analysis of the j...
  • Call for Papers: IIT Bombay and MHRD jointly announce the 2nd International Conference on Management of Intellectual Property and Strategy
    The readers may be interested to know that the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management of IIT Bombay is geared up to host, in collaboration w...
  • SpicyIP Tidbit: ALCS August Distribution
    In the UK, the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society is an organization run and owned by writers that collects money due to its mem...
  • Delhi HC rejects the "Hot News" Doctrine: A Summary
    The applicability of the Hot News doctrine was rejected recently in a landmark ruling delivered by Justice Bhat of the Delhi HC. This post i...
  • Satyajit Ray's sketches and copyright controversies
    A copyright row appears to have started between the Satyajit Ray Society and the Delhi Art Gallery, that is organising a countrywide exhibit...
  • Thalappakatti biryani trademark row
    The southern district of Dindigal in Tamil Nadu occupies a special place in the hearts of biryani lovers. In the late 1950s, one Nagasamy N...
  • Karnataka High Court temporarily restrains German company from exploiting trade secrets of Homag India
    Image from here In an interesting judgment dated 10th October, 2012 the Karnataka High Court, sitting at Bangalore, has passed an interim in...

Categories

  • 126 (1)
  • 3(d) (4)
  • 3(f) (1)
  • 3(i) (1)
  • 3(k) (2)
  • Academic Writing (1)
  • access (10)
  • access to food (1)
  • access to health (3)
  • AIA (1)
  • AIDS/HIV (3)
  • Antitrust (2)
  • Bajaj v LML (1)
  • Basmati Row (2)
  • Biological Diversity (5)
  • Biologics (2)
  • biopiracy (4)
  • biotech (7)
  • Bollywood (25)
  • Broadcasters Rights (5)
  • Budget (1)
  • business method patent (2)
  • Call for papers (2)
  • Cipla (2)
  • Comparative Advertising (4)
  • Competition law (8)
  • Compulsory Licensing (27)
  • condonation of delay (1)
  • Conference (4)
  • Constitution (12)
  • Contracts (1)
  • Controller's decisions (8)
  • Copyright (112)
  • Copyright Amendment Bill 2010 (23)
  • copyright board (4)
  • Copyright Exceptions (6)
  • copyright office (1)
  • Copyright Rules (2013) (5)
  • Copyright Societies (9)
  • Counterfeiting (1)
  • creativity (1)
  • Cross Retaliation (1)
  • csir (4)
  • d (1)
  • D.U. Photocopy Case (16)
  • Darjeeling Tea (3)
  • Data Exclusivity (2)
  • Database (1)
  • DCGI (2)
  • decompilation (2)
  • defamation (9)
  • Designs (3)
  • Designs Act (3)
  • Differential Pricing (2)
  • Dilution (1)
  • Disabilities (3)
  • Disability (2)
  • DMCA (2)
  • Doha Declaration (1)
  • Domain Names (2)
  • Draft Policy of the Indian Government (2)
  • DRM (1)
  • Drug Regulation (7)
  • education (12)
  • Enercon (1)
  • Enforcement (1)
  • EU (2)
  • ex parte (2)
  • exhaustion (3)
  • Exhaustion of Rights (2)
  • Fair Dealing (8)
  • Fair Use (11)
  • Federal Circuit (1)
  • Fees (3)
  • FICCI (7)
  • FRAND (2)
  • free trade agreement (3)
  • FTA (3)
  • G.I. Registry (4)
  • gene sequences (3)
  • Generic medicine (4)
  • Geographical Indication (14)
  • Gilead (1)
  • Glenmark (5)
  • Gopika (34)
  • Guest post (11)
  • guidelines (1)
  • GWU-CII (1)
  • Herceptin (1)
  • hot news (3)
  • ICANN (1)
  • incremental innovation (1)
  • independence (1)
  • india (5)
  • Indian Government (1)
  • Indian patent litigation (27)
  • Indian Pharma (35)
  • Injunction (10)
  • Innovation (7)
  • INTA (1)
  • Intermediaries (10)
  • internet (11)
  • Internet Access Providers (IAPs) (5)
  • Internet Censorship (7)
  • IP scholarship (3)
  • IP aware (4)
  • IP Course (3)
  • IP Education (1)
  • IP Policy (11)
  • IP update (4)
  • ip writing competition (1)
  • IPAB (34)
  • ipchair (1)
  • IPO (1)
  • IPRS (5)
  • IT Act (1)
  • Journal (2)
  • judicial independence (3)
  • Jurisdiction (1)
  • Kruttika (4)
  • Legal Education (3)
  • Legal Research Tools (1)
  • Legal Scholarship (2)
  • library (2)
  • Licensing (7)
  • Madhulika (20)
  • mathematical methods (1)
  • Media law (3)
  • medical method (1)
  • Merck (4)
  • mhrd ip chair (1)
  • Microsoft (3)
  • Middle Path (1)
  • Moral Rights (2)
  • Movies (18)
  • musical work (2)
  • nanotechnology (1)
  • Natco (3)
  • natco defamation suit (5)
  • natco vs bayer (4)
  • need for transparency (1)
  • Novartis (8)
  • Novartis patent case in India (11)
  • NPEs (2)
  • nujs (1)
  • NUJS Conference (2)
  • Obituary (1)
  • obviousness (7)
  • Off-Topic (2)
  • online course (4)
  • Open Access (6)
  • Open Source (2)
  • Opposition (3)
  • Parallel Imports (4)
  • Parliament (1)
  • passing off (5)
  • Patent (52)
  • Patent act (10)
  • patent agent (5)
  • patent agent exam (9)
  • patent agent exam qualifications (3)
  • patent infringement (5)
  • Patent Licensing (2)
  • Patent litigation (2)
  • Patent Office (19)
  • patent pool (3)
  • Patent Prosecution (7)
  • Patent rules (2)
  • Patent Strategies (8)
  • Patents (9)
  • pegasus (1)
  • Personality Rights (1)
  • Pfizer (1)
  • Pharma (18)
  • Piracy (5)
  • plagiarism (3)
  • Plant Variety Protection (2)
  • post grant (1)
  • Prashant (2)
  • Preventive Detention (1)
  • Price Control (6)
  • prior publication (1)
  • Privacy (3)
  • Prizes (1)
  • public health (3)
  • Public Interest (4)
  • Publicity Rights (4)
  • Publishing (3)
  • radio (2)
  • Rajiv (18)
  • Rectification Petition (2)
  • Rejection (1)
  • research (3)
  • reverse engineering (2)
  • revocation (4)
  • rip (1)
  • Roche (2)
  • Roche vs Cipla (1)
  • Royalty (2)
  • RTI (2)
  • Scholarship (4)
  • section 16 (1)
  • Section 3(d) (7)
  • section 8 (6)
  • shamnad (11)
  • Shan Kohli (4)
  • Shouvik Kumar Guha (30)
  • Smartphones/Tablets (2)
  • Social Innovation (1)
  • Software (10)
  • software enforcement (3)
  • software patent (3)
  • Special 301 Report (1)
  • Spicy Tidbits (6)
  • spicyip (1)
  • SpicyIP Accolades (1)
  • SpicyIP Announcements (9)
  • SpicyIP Case (1)
  • SpicyIP Cases (3)
  • spicyip commiseration (1)
  • SpicyIP Events (11)
  • SpicyIP Fellowship (5)
  • SpicyIP Guest Series (22)
  • SpicyIP Interview (2)
  • SpicyIP Jobs (4)
  • SpicyIP Jobs/General (2)
  • SpicyIP Review (1)
  • SpicyIP Tidbits (11)
  • SpicyIP Weekly Review (27)
  • Statutory Licensing (1)
  • STI Policy 2013 (4)
  • Sugen (3)
  • Supreme Court of India (5)
  • Swaraj (19)
  • Tarnishment (1)
  • Technology (6)
  • Technology Transfer (5)
  • TKDL (5)
  • TPP (1)
  • trade (4)
  • Trade Secret Protection (1)
  • Trademark (59)
  • Trademark dilution (1)
  • Trademark Registry (9)
  • Traditional Knowledge (7)
  • Transparency (5)
  • treaty (1)
  • trial (1)
  • tribunals (2)
  • TRIPS (11)
  • UK (3)
  • unfair competition (5)
  • UNFCCC (1)
  • Universities Research and Innovation Bill (2)
  • US (1)
  • US Patent Reform (1)
  • US Supreme Court (3)
  • viva (3)
  • WIPO (5)
  • Working a Patent (2)
  • Workshop (4)
  • writ (1)
  • WTO (1)

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (364)
    • ►  September (13)
    • ▼  August (41)
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: ALCS August Distribution
      • PIP Essay Competition Results Announced: Meet the ...
      • Now Showing: Satyagraha: Bom HC denies an Injuncti...
      • Patenting food: Plumpy’ Nut and more?
      • Bollywood flick Satyagraha faces dispute over its ...
      • Leading IP Academics Fired: Protest Petition Again...
      • Two MHRD IP Chair Professors axed; Reasons unknown
      • FICCI and The George Washington University, Washin...
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: IPA continues communication with P...
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: GI for Pedana Kalamkari Art Form
      • Colgate v Pepsodent: Comparative Advertising
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: Justice KN Basha to be new IPAB ch...
      • IPRS complies with new copyright law & decides to ...
      • Re-imposing curbs on royalty payments to foreigners
      • Debating the CIS Draft Bill on Privacy: Should thi...
      • The BDR compulsory licensing application and the B...
      • Satyajit Ray's sketches and copyright controversies
      • Rihanna's victory in the Topshop T-shirt case
      • When cancer drugs stop being “necessities”: A case...
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: Singers from the South in support ...
      • Loss of an IP Leader: RIP Prof Daruwalla
      • Part II: IPAB revokes Allergan's patent on eye dru...
      • Part I: IPAB revokes Allergan's patent on eye drug...
      • Feedback on draft guidelines for Computer Related ...
      • A naïve report from Parliament on FDI in the Pharm...
      • INTAvening in the Supreme Court: Parallel Imports ...
      • Surprising news! - Roche decides to not ‘pursue’ H...
      • Independent Intellectual Property: Gunning For (or...
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: Special Services announced by WIP...
      • GI News: Kaipad Rice, Nagpur Oranges, Dharmavaram ...
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: Patent Office confirms status of G...
      • The Sholay litigation saga
      • SpicyIP Tidbit: Has Genentech’s main Herceptin pat...
      • Bollywood flick 'I love NY' accused of plagiarisin...
      • The Herceptin patent fiasco at the Indian Patent O...
      • IPO vs IPAB: IT Prowess and Transparency?
      • Ghost Post: Samsung v. Apple Presidential Enforcem...
      • Delhi HC dismisses Rediff.com's Copyright Infringe...
      • UNICEF Supply Annual Report 2012 : India is the La...
      • Raj Anand Moot Court Competition 2013
      • Breaking News: GSK patents challenged: IPAB revoke...
    • ►  July (36)
    • ►  June (36)
    • ►  May (32)
    • ►  April (51)
    • ►  March (66)
    • ►  February (40)
    • ►  January (49)
  • ►  2012 (131)
    • ►  December (29)
    • ►  November (42)
    • ►  October (50)
    • ►  September (10)
Powered by Blogger.