All of us at some point have watched and loved the film “Dirty Dancing”. The film is legendary for different reasons- the impeccable dance routines, the star-crossed lovers theme, Patrick Swayze and the dialogues, which are quoted, spoofed and now being used for ad campaigns. TD Ameritrade (‘Ameritrade’ for brevity) through its ad company Havas ran an advertisement of a man lifting a piggy bank over the tagline "Nobody puts your old 401(k) in the corner”, clearly spoofing the most…
History has been replete with some really crazy patents, some that could send you rolling on the floor laughing. Let’s start off with a few, back in March 1995, a patent was issued for “A funnel that helps women urinate accurately!!." In May 2003, a patent was granted for “Pierced Glasses!!”, these glasses were intended for use with the idea that people would never have to lose their glasses again once these glasses were “pierced” to the face. In October…
Deadmau5 the Canadian progressive-house music producer who made his first tour of India last year had found himself in a trademark battle with the most loved mouse of all time, Mickey Mouse the well known cartoon character and the proud mascot of Disney. The root of Deadmau5 - real name Joel Zimmerman's troubles was literally sitting on his head, his iconic Mau5head which he regularly wears during all his performances around the world.
The Walt Disney Company Disney is fiercely protective of…
This presentation has been made by Nitin Nair. The presentation primarily deals with the importance of intellectual property protection in the hospital management sector. Besides stressing on the importance of protection, the presenter also elucidates the requirements of a successful patent grant, what is patentable subject matter and what are the necessary steps to be taken with respect to safeguarding inventions in the hospital and hospital management sector.
The presentation begins with Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 (“Patents…
Patenting in France has gotten slightly costlier after the National Institute of industrial Property recently revised the tariffs for patent procedures. The rates procedures of INPI were untouched since 2008, and hence a revaluation of the tariffs seemed long overdue. The revaluation of the tariffs was implemented by a ministerial order of June 10, 2015. The new rates are applicable to all applications made on or after July 1, 2015.
The Decree of 10 June 2015 amending the Decree of…
On 9th July, 2015, The Hindu reported that Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has made its way into the top five research and academic institutions in BRICS countries. The report mentions that IISc tops the list in terms of the number of research publications from an academic institution. It is noteworthy that seven institutions from China figure in the list. Team SiNApSE has earlier tracked news stories of IISc's intellectual property progress, and we felt that this would be a…
“You win some and you lose some”, this is a phrase all too familiar to most people and more specifically to the market of pharmaceuticals. It is perhaps this phrase that most pharmaceutical companies live by during their existence! Patent infringement, claim invalidation, compulsory license and Generic companies are the most clichéd words that one comes across, whenever there is a mention of pharmaceutical patents. Eli Lilly (a cancer treatment drug) happens to be one such entity that has “been…
On July 1, 2015, Google owned video-sharing website YouTube won a legal battle against German performing rights organization GEMA in a German regional court. GEMA had claimed that Youtube should be liable to pay each time a video of an artist, represented by GEMA is viewed. GEMA represents several composers, lyricists, music publishers as its members in Germany and collects their royalty fees. This is not the first time that GEMA has engaged in a legal feud with YouTube. Even…
In addition to Kolhapuri Chappals (registered as GI), Kolhapur is also going to be famous for its Kolhapuri Masala. Yes, you heard it right! The Karveer Adarsha Mahila Aaudyogik Sahkari Sanstha (KAMAAS), a group of women self-help organizations with the help of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), a state-initiative of agriculture department, had applied under the application no-475 on 26th March 2014, to get the Geographical Indication (GI) status for the delectable mixture of different spices that claims to bring a distinct…
Flipkart and Amazon (e-retail giants) are at loggerheads again. The matter concerns the online sale of Amish Tripathi’s book `Scion of Ikshvaku'. This time it is Flipkart which has been sued by the Westland, a Tata owned entity, for alleged infringement under both the copyright and IT Acts, for the unauthorized sale of the aforementioned book.
According to Westland, they had entered into an exclusive agreement with Amazon for a period of two months to sell the book online. These…