Intellectual Property

The Delhi High court comes to a decision in the ongoing dispute between the Monsanto Group of Companies and the Nuziveedu Group of Companies. A far-reaching decision and the first on the patentability of genetically modified plants, the court has held that genetically modified plants, genetically modified seeds and gene sequences that provide genetic traits to plants are not patentable subject matter in India. ...

How should an author protect the intellectual property that vests in a title? And more significantly, is there any intellectual property in a title? Though it seems there is no copyright protection of title as yet provided by law, one could seek protection through Trademark. This article details avenues of protection available in the current scenario....

Many countries offer some form of design protection or other to GUIs, such as USA, China, Brazil, EU, South Africa and so on. In India, however, while the Designs Act, 2002, recognises the protection of GUI, but the Indian Design Office is reluctant to register them under Industrial Design Protection. The following article looks into a case involving Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon), where class 14-02 of the Design Act came under fire, to gain insight into how this is currently working in India....

Law requires patent holders to submit statements of working on a regular basis. Since in many cases the requirement is not being complied with, a public interest litigation was filed in the Delhi High Court in 2015, asking the Patent Office to take action against those who did not submit this information. The IPO called for comments as a pre-cursor to hosting a stakeholder consultation on the issue of working of patents. ...

The debate over copyright in perpetuity versus copyright for a limited term is as old as the law that we inherited itself. Amitabh Bachchan has recently brought the debate to the fore again, arguing how his father’s works, that are essentially his inheritence, be allowed to go into public domain. The question also raised is how was the time period of copyright after death of the author decided? Why 60, why not 61, why not 59 years?...

India has become the latest country to join WIPO’s Digital Access Service (DAS). Priority and other documents relevant to IP can now be securely exchanged through electronic means between IP offices across the world. Here’s a look at what DAS means, its advantages and how it will impact patent applicants....

Patent applications for inventions that use biological resources require approval from NBA. Aspects to keep in mind are the nationality of the applicant, source of the biological resource and does the invention relate to a biological resource defined under BDA....

There has been a steady increase in the number of patent applications centered around biological resources. The Biological Diversity Act and its provisions are an important consideration while filing or prosecuting such patents. ...

The 2017 amendment to Patent Rules, 2003 have allowed inclusion of foreign entities under the definition of start-up. They must, like Indian start-ups, fulfill the criteria for turnover and period of incorporation as per Start-up India Initiative. ...