Insights
Practical perspectives on protecting, managing and enforcing intellectual property across India and the subcontinent.
Raja Pannir Selvam · 15 March 2016
The Trademark Clearance Search: The Most Underrated Step
Startups regularly receive a cease and desist notice weeks after launch, and find their social pages and app listings pulled without warning. Nearly all of it is preventable by a search that costs a fraction of the rebrand it avoids.
14 March 2016
Freedom of Panorama: Photographing Public Monuments and Buildings
Can you photograph a public building or sculpture and publish the image without infringing copyright? In India, yes — freely, even commercially. How Section 52 secures 'freedom of panorama', and how other countries differ.
11 March 2016
When an Injunction Isn't Enough: Enforcing It Against a Defiant Infringer
You won the injunction — and the infringer ignored it. Indian law arms you with attachment of property, civil detention and contempt of court. The tools that put teeth behind an order.
Harleen · 10 March 2016
Taxes and IP: Are Royalty Payments Revenue or Capital?
When a company licenses IP it doesn't own and pays royalties, is that a revenue expense or partly capital? The Sicpa India ruling clarifies: if the know-how stays the licensor's, the royalty is revenue expenditure — fully deductible.
Madhuram Mohan · 9 March 2016
Software Piracy Raids on Startups: Know Your Rights
A call questioning your software licences, or an audit team at your door — anti-piracy raids target startups. What the law actually allows, why you can demand a court order, and how to protect yourself.
7 March 2016
Copyright and Accessibility: The Disability Exceptions in Indian Law
The 2012 amendment ended the 'book famine' in Indian copyright — allowing accessible-format copies for print-disabled persons without the owner's permission. Section 52(1)(zb), Section 31B, and the Marrakesh Treaty explained.
1 March 2016
Trademark Squatting: Is India a Safe Haven?
IKEA lost its mark in Indonesia to a company with a conveniently matching acronym, after three years of non-use. Burger King faced a domestic chain in India challenging a 1979 registration. The pattern is consistent — and India's law is less permissive than it looks.
26 February 2016
The 2016 CRI Guidelines and the Novel Hardware Test That Didn't Last
The February 2016 CRI Guidelines introduced a three-prong test requiring novel hardware alongside a computer program, delighting the software industry that had fought the 2015 version. The 2017 Guidelines removed that requirement — leaving the Section 3(k) question to the courts.
24 February 2016
The Research (Bolar) Exemption Under Indian Patent Law
Using a patented drug for research and regulatory approval isn't infringement — that's the Bolar exemption. How Section 107A lets generic makers prepare their versions before a patent expires, the origins in Roche v. Bolar, and how Bayer v. Cipla applied it in India.
23 February 2016
Patentability of 3D-Printed Human Organs
Bio-printing could let 3D printers build human organs from a patient's own cells. But are lab-created organs patentable, when they replicate natural organs using natural cells? Where India's Section 3(c) and the Myriad 'not a product of nature' logic collide.
19 February 2016
Post-Mortem Publicity Rights in India: A Grave Question
Do a celebrity's publicity rights survive their death, so heirs can stop unauthorised commercial use? India has no clear law — only the Emblems and Names Act (protecting Gandhi, Nehru and others). Why the answer is decided case by case, from Einstein to Mont Blanc.
Raja Pannir Selvam · 18 February 2016
Freedom 251 and Apple's Icons: Ignorance of Copyright Is No Excuse
Ringing Bells' ultra-cheap Freedom 251 phone shipped with Apple-lookalike icons — and its tech head claimed 'Apple hasn't copyrighted its designs.' A cautionary tale about how copyright arises automatically and why 'ignorance of the law is no excuse'.