Sound Board

Our thoughts and views on the practice of Intellectual Property in India and around the world.

Ever wanted to know the recipe for your favourite dish in a restaurant? Or wished that you could make Pringles at home? They wouldn’t be special or in demand anymore if you could do make it by yourself! This got me thinking on the best ways to protect food recipes and prompted me to write this article.

If you are a wrestling fan, you would have definitely heard of John Cena, Randy Orton, The Rock, Cm Punk, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, The Great Khali, Rey Mysterio, HHH, Edge etc. As a fan of these mega stars, you would have purchased many merchandise to be more like them and also would have made sure that you bought the original ones and not the replicas. But are you certain that what you are buying is in fact the original piece? More often than not, retailers import few pieces of original…

YouTube is filled with videos of people (budding artists!) singing songs of their favourite artists in their own style and giving it their personal touch or artists who are remixing songs. In the first scenario, it would be a most likely be cover version of the original song since the singer is retaining the lyrics and the musical arrangement but singing it in his own style. However, in the case of remixes, the artist is changing the musical arrangement by adding beats, lyrics and a few notes,…

There have been too many copyright issues in the recent times, either between the producer or the director of the film with regard to ownership of copyright or between say, a scriptwriter and the director. This got me thinking about the rights of the different people who contribute toward making a movie, well a complete movie. There is the music composer, the lyricist, the sound recorder, the record label company to name a few who are individuals who come up with creative ideas and turn them…

Copyright law never ceases to surprise us with its complex yet interesting issues that affect our day to day lives. About a week ago, the IP world was flooded with news that pictures of the Eiffel Tower taken at night would amount to infringement of copyright, however pictures taken during the day wouldn’t violate provisions of the copyright law in France. The European Union in 2001 issued a directive with respect to copyright law stating that photographs of buildings in public spaces can be…

The Fashion Industry is an Intellectual property intensive industry as it is that industry that involves continuous creation of new and innovative ideas that are commercially exploited. If you just look at your reflection in the mirror, you will find that you are literally wearing “ Intellectual Property ”. The brand that you are wearing is most probably protected under trademark law, the floral design or any other like pattern on the dress is a design and can be protected under the Designs law…

“I could not afford to go to Delhi just to register my script” says Mr. Gopi, a script writer who recently filed a suit against the “Kaththi” director Murugadoss accusing him of stealing his script. I watched this very interesting interview of his where he says that he’s met with the director thrice and had discussed the script with the director’s assistant for years together. When asked if he had given his script prior to the release of the film, he replied in the affirmative and said that he…

I’m pretty certain that most people with Facebook accounts in India have seen the Prime Minister’s post on his Facebook page wishing people for Dhanteras on October 21, 2014. While the photograph was visually striking, it appears that someone who knew the photographer tagged him on the post since he didn’t know that his photograph was being used.

The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) entrusted with the job of maintaining healthy competition and curbing abuse of monopoly in the market place was tasked with examining the actions of Super Cassettes Industries (“T Series”). The Informant/Complainant in this matter was HT Media Limited which runs Fever 104 FM a radio station and T Series is music label from whom they were licensing music. (For more on copyright and Licensing Music click here).

Magic tricks don’t cease to surprise and most often, they leave us befuddled with a lot of questions. But if we knew how the trick was performed, would we be as amused? Probably not. And that’s exactly why the magicians’ community thinks it is important to protect their tricks under the law. This is where intellectual property comes into play and the question is which branch of IP will protect magic tricks. In this article, I will discuss the patentability (if at all patentable),…