May 2nd, 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the invention of the Personal Identification Number (PIN) technology for cash machines. James Goodfellow was the man who came up with an idea of designing a system that accepted a machine readable encrypted card to which he added a numerical keypad into which a Personal Identification Number (PIN) had to be entered manually. He was an engineer working in Glasgow in the 1960’s who changed the face of banking industry with his…
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises contribute enormously to the socio-economic development of the country and this is not a hidden fact. MSMEs play a crucial role in providing large employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital cost than large industries. They also help in industrialization of rural & backward areas, thereby, reducing regional imbalances and assuring more equitable distribution of national income and wealth.
According to the SME chamber of India, the MSME sector consists of 36 million units which…
Earlier this week, the words, “Compulsory License”, “Section 84” and “Indian pharma” once again made the headlines. This time however, it wasn’t a new case being brought forth; instead it was the decision to bury two old ones.
The news reports suggested that two Indian drugmakers had given up a battle to copy drugs developed by Bristol Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca, blaming a lack of government support for cheap generics and pressure from Big Pharma. The two Indian drug makers…
A couple of years ago Google initiated a project to make smart contact lenses for measuring glucose levels. A healthcare company, Novartis, stepped in to license this technology. Google and Novartis soon announced they would team up to develop smart contact lenses for diabetes, allowing patients to measure glucose from their tears using a miniaturized sensor and a wireless chip. In July, Novartis' Alcon eye care division inked a deal with Google to license its "smart lens" technology for all…
In the most recent development in the Ercisson versus CCI battle, the Delhi High Court on the 30th of March, 2016 has dismissed the petition filed by Ericsson in the case of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ). v. Competition Commission of India & Anr. In the order passed by Justice Vibhu Bakhru, the court stated that ”Merely because certain reliefs sought by Micromax and Intex before CCI are also available in proceedings under the Patents Act does not exclude the subject…
We all love a good TED talk, an insightful and informative talk given by someone who understands the subject matter he or she is discussing. For all our readers who are not aware of what TED talks are, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. These TED talks are held all around the world and are primarily educational in nature. The talks do not focus on any one topic or subject, as the talks are delivered by speakers coming from…
India has seen a lot of chaos in the field of IP within the last decade. From amendments to draft amendments and propositions to impositions, IP in India has seen it all. In the past year alone we have witnessed 3 major amendments being proposed to the Patents Act and Rules and Trademark rules. Further, we have had several major discussions including discussions on the IPR policy for India, guidelines for examination of patents, software patents, etc.
The trend…
The timing of what has just happened in the world of patents cannot get better than this news. On the 1st of March 2016, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) published a discussion paper on standard essential patents (SEPs) and their availability on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The paper invites views from the concerned stakeholders regarding Standard Essential Patents and the issues surrounding them until the 31st of March, 2016.
In our previous post on SEPs,…
This post is in continuation to Standard Essential Patents : Fair? Reasonable? Non-Discriminatory? (I). In this post we will discuss the state of FRAND based litigation in other countries and look at how the Courts moved to interpret the law.
The first of the cases to be discussed are as follows:
Apple Inc. v. Motorola, Inc. and Motorola Mobility, Inc
Apple filed two complaints in the Western District of Wisconsin for patent infringement against Motorola, Inc. and Motorola Mobility, Inc., seeking…
Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) set standards and essential features that must be fulfilled by specific essential items, materials, components, systems or services. Few examples of such SSOs in India are Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Telecom Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI), Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), The Global ICT Standardization Forum for India (GISFI) and Development Organization of Standards for Telecommunications in India (DOSTI). When such specific essential item, material, component, system or service is in conformity with the set…