In a recent development in the realm of SEP’s , a US technology firm; Unwired Planet, Inc. has won the first round against electronic giants Samsung and Huawei over a mobile communication technology said to be essential to the 4G telecommunication system. The interim judgment was passed by the UK Patents Court against as many as 8 parties including Samsung, Huawei, Google and its subsidiaries, and Ericsson earlier this year in July 2015.
In March 2014, Unwired Planet brought a…
Provisions for facilitating access of copyrighted works to the disabled, including blind persons, were introduced in the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 in 2012. Limitations and Exceptions in the Indian Copyright Law can be categorized into two types:
Fair Dealing exception for the disabled; and
Compulsory License for making works accessible to the disabled.
Fair Dealing ((Section 52(zb))
The use of a work for making it accessible to a disabled person is considered as fair dealing under the Indian…
In furtherance to my recent post on patent trolls or the Non Practicing Entities (NPEs), I would like to discuss here in this post about how software technology is becoming a treasure trove for patent trolls. Cloud based business products are one of the major business fields today. Software-oriented platforms such as C (SaaS) providers are primary targets for the patent trolls.
General observation indicates that in the area of software patents the patents are much broader. In several instance, patents…
This post discusses a recent case update with regard to prior use of a descriptive trademark. The case presents an interesting aspect of trademark law, i.e., when claiming for passing off action of a descriptive trademark, the Plaintiff must provide convincing evidence to establish the prior use and the secondary meaning which has been acquired for the trademark. The case described herein was filed on 26th July 2010 before the High Court of Bombay, by two companies namely, Pidilite Industries Limited…
In October this year, the Bombay High Court passed its decision in the case between The Indian Express Limited and Chandran Prakash Shivhare, the publisher and distributor of a journal called "Indian Express" filed before the Bombay High Court in the year 2010, to seek an injunction against the Defendant, and to restrain them from using the title ‘Indian Express’. The crux of this case was whether a registered trademark could be infringed by the use of the identical mark which had…
After several years of continuous effort, the MARRAKESH TREATY TO FACILITATE ACCESS TO PUBLISHED WORKS FOR PERSONS WHO ARE BLIND, VISUALLY IMPAIRED, OR OTHERWISE PRINT DISABLED was adopted in 2013. So far, 9 countries, including India, have ratified the Treaty, while 2 have acceded to it. The Treaty will come into force when 20 countries ratify it.
Background
A WHO report estimates that there are more than 285 million blind or visually disabled people in this world. It is estimated…
On 19th November, 2015 Draft Trademark (Amendment) Rules, 2015 were issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI). The Rules are intended to amend the current Trademark Rules, 2002 and have proposed a complete revamping of the same. The rules propose the trademark filing fee to be doubled, which means a hundred percent hike in official charges.
The Digital India initiative has gone a step further, by discouraging physical filing of Trade Mark applications. The applicants will be required…
Licensing of creative content like cinematographic films or sound recording through digital platforms forms an integral part of the entertainment business. This post is in continuation of our previous post about the structure of a Digital Licensing Agreement. In addition to the definitions, grant of license and the consideration clauses in a standard license agreement, the parties must ensure that the following clauses are also included in the Digital License Agreement:
Representations and Warranties : It is essential to…
The fundamental rule of Copyright law is that facts and ideas are not copyrightable, it is only the creative expression of such ideas and facts that is rewarded by law, by conferring a privilege to exclusively exploit such expression for a limited time. However, not all expression are accorded protection under the Copyright Law. The law affords protection to expressions that are fixed in a medium and are ―original. Section 13 of the Copyright Act provides that ―original, literary, artistic,…
In our post last week, we looked at statutory licensing for broadcast organizations specified under Section 31D of the Indian Copyright Act. As mentioned earlier, the objective of non-voluntary licensing is to overcome the difficulty of locating the original owner of the copyrighted work in order to obtain a license and to avoid the creation of monopoly of copyright owners.
The Copyright Act similarly contains provisions for statutory licensing for cover versions under Section 31C. While Section 31D which talks…