Under the existing Intellectual Property (Rights) regime in India, thousands of promising innovations and inventions remain un-patented. The new Intellectual Property Rights policy plans to change that. The first draft of the (IPR) policy released on December 19, 2014, emphasizes on the need to formulate a new IP law to facilitate the patenting of various ground-breaking Indian inventions.
In November, 2014, the Government formed an IP think-tank under former IPAB (Intellectual Property Appellate Board) chairman justice, Prabha Sridevan, which…
In a final written decision of an inter partes review under the America Invents Act (AIA), the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) stated that True Position Inc.'s (device locator) patent - 7,783,299, which describes a system for locating wireless devices in an emergency, is invalid in light of three prior art references. US patent 7,783,299 covers monitoring links in a wireless network, and triggering network events detected on those links. The technology…
The market is rife with the reports of Korean phone-maker Samsung intending to acquire Blackberry for $7.5 billion, in spite of both the companies labelling the reports “groundless”. The speculation sent the Canadian smart-phone maker’s stock soaring 30% before it fell down by 17%. The possibility of the acquisition has raised a very important question- What makes Blackberry so appealing to Samsung?
The acquisition would give Samsung the access to Blackberry’s robust patent portfolio that includes 44,000 patents worth over…
Gilead Sciences was rejected patent for its blockbuster drug Sofosbuvir, a new Hepatitis C drug by the India Patent Office in a major decision taken on 13 January 2015. The drug is branded under the name Sovaldi. Gilead had priced the drug at US$84,000 for a treatment course, or $1,000 per pill in the US and had received a regulatory approval in US in 2013.
The patent application (6087/DELNP/2005) for the drug was opposed by the Indian generic company Natco; Medicines,…
The Chennai Patent Office revoked Hoffmann-La-Roche’s patent on its osteoporosis drug, Bonviva, in response to post grant opposition filed by Indian drug maker, Cipla Global Ltd. The drug in question comprises Ibandronate Sodium, used to treat patients suffering from metastatic cancer, associated skeletal fractures and osteoporosis and also for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. Osteoporosis is the progressive bone disease caused by decrease in bone mass making bones extremely weak and fragile, leading to increased risk of…
GOOGLE V. SPAIN – SPANISH PUBLISHERS SUFFER AS GOOGLE NEWS CLOSES OPERATIONS
A new Copyright law which has made it mandatory for Google, Yahoo and other news aggregators to pay licensing fee to all news publishers for using their stories or snippets in Google News, results in Google cutting its operations in Spain. However, the regulation allowed publishers to opt in to Google’s index, and prevent Google from paying licensing fee.
COPYRIGHT REGULATION TO ALLOW PRIVATE COPYING; TO FACE IRE…
The Indian Patent Office on December 31, 2014 set aside its order of granting a Patent to Abbott Biotechnology for its drug, Humira, in light of pre-grant opposition filed by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. In November, 2003, Abbott had filed a patent application No. 526/DELNP/2005 for its drug named Humira, a formulation of human antibodies for treating Rheumatoid Arthritis. Glenmark filed a pre-grant opposition to this application in September, 2008. Since this was not brought to the notice of the Controller, Patent…
American patent risk management company, RPX Corp., entered into an agreement to acquire around 4,000 patents owned by Rockstar, a consortium led by Apple Inc. and other firms for US$ 900M. Rockstar was created as a patent holding entity in 2011 by technology bigwigs like Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony and Ericsson, with the intent of purchasing the 6,000 patents from the Nortel Network Corp., for US$ 4.5B, following its bankruptcy. About 2,000 of the most valuable patents have already been distributed…
Aurobindo Pharma, USA, has been dragged to the Court for patent infringement by Astrazeneca. The suit filed is against the ANDA (Abbreviated New Drug Application) filed by Aurobindo Pharma with the USFDA with regard to seeking the market approval for Saxagliptin hydrochloride tablets before the expiry of its US patent. Aurobindo Pharma plans to market the generic versions of Saxagliptin hydrochloride tablets of 2.5 mg and 5 mg strengths.
Astrazeneca is the sole marketer of Saxagliptin hydrochloride tablets having got…
Google has now entered into a patent cross selling agreement with Verizon after cutting similar deals with Cisco, Samsung and LG, in its pursuit to attain cutting-edge technology and fend off lawsuits. The contract will not give Google and Verizon access to each other’s patents, but will forbid them from filing lawsuits against each other over patent infringements of their existing patents as well as patents obtained by them over the next five years. The agreement will cover a wide…