Du IP Café

According to Section 3(j)  of the Patents Act, 1970: "Plants and animals in whole or any part thereof other than micro organisms but including seeds, varieties and species and essentially biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals are not patentable inventions" Plant breeders need to protect their genetically modified plants to compensate for the high levels of investment in developing plants with desired genotypic and/or phenotypic trait. The guidelines for examination of Biotechnology applications for patent explicitly state that transgenic/modified microorganisms which do not constitute discovery of living things occurring in nature are patentable subject matter under the Patents Act. However, the decision  ( Monsanto Technology LLC  v.  The Controller of Patents & Designs and Ors. , OA/02/2012/PT/DEL )  of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) on July 5, 2013, refusing Monsanto’s patent application...

PATENTABILITY OF NUCLEIC ACID MOLECULE RELATED INVENTIONS WHOSE FUNCTIONS ARE INFERRED BASED ON HOMOLOGY SEARCH: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES Patenting of genes often incites a widespread controversy since it seems odd to patent the universal entity like a gene. According to Section 3(c) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, mere discovery of a scientific principle or the formulation of an abstract theory or discovery of any living thing or non-living substance occurring in nature is not a patentable invention. Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure briefly talks about gene patents with an example under the head of unity of an invention- When a genetically modified Gene Sequence/ Amino Acid Sequence is novel, involves an inventive step and has industrial application, the following can be claimed. a) Gene sequence / Amino Acid sequence b) A method of expressing above sequence c) An antibody against that protein / sequence d) A kit made from the antibody / sequence ...

Start Up or Wake Up..?? Taking a cue from my earlier post "Bahut Scope Hai Bhai".. So I decided to enter the world of law of which I had no clue initially and slowly the excitement of pursuing law from IIT KGP sunk as I realized the depth of it. Thought, it will be over in a matter of three years and then it will be all new world. As the time passed, the thought of doing something Hatke hit me and then I... Turned down a comfortable office job..! Another offer came in way and sat on it until it passed..! In between, the exciting and thrilling litigation career kept taunting..!  and after all this here I am..with a start up established with an objective of providing concrete platform for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) with a special focus on protection, promotion and enforcement of Geographical Indications! It seems so easy to read the previous statement but when we actually started working towards it, I gradually woke up from my tranquil sleep and realized ...

Even The King Struggles..! When I say King I mean It..It is easy to see why.. Alphonso Mango's voluptuous shape, sunshine yellow skin reveals saffron colored, smooth flesh...imagine an impeccable cross between peach, nectarine, apricot, melon with notes of honey and citrus..Alphonso is better than you imagined..! Alphonso becomes an obsessive passion not only for its producers but also for the consumers when it hits the market during the season. Now coming back from the poetic yet real description of the King to the struggle it faces. Last season Alphonso suffered a major setback in the export market. I will not delve into the details of it since it has been discussed widely in media. What I would like to share is that Alphonso being a King of Mangoes is struggling to get a Geographical Indications tag in India... Going by the facts there are three applicants who have sough to register Alphonso Mango as the Geographical Indication, namely- Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth (Appl...

BAHUT SCOPE HAI BHAI..!! Well... the memory trail goes back to 2004 when I first heard about the so called scope of Biotechnology with an excellent stats of placements from different institutions. And as it happened to all my colleagues, the pseudo placement stats made me crazy about this Biotech stuff followed by day dreams of earning 40K immediately after graduation and blah blah....! So I got into this college for B.Sc. and paid a donation as well in the name of development fund while I could have easily gotten into Maharashtra's one of the best Engineering Colleges. Anyways, so my craziness continued as we started learning and went on and on.  The question WHY never peeped into my head as if I was lost in the unfathomable data of genetic code. Finally, the bubble of Bahut Scope Hai bursted and I went into temporary shock which made me crazier and i decided to pursue Masters in Biotechnology. Finally, after a long struggle I gotten into really good institution t...

Article 22.1 of TRIPS Agreement refers to the term Geographical Indications as - "...indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin." On 15th September, 2015, the Geographical Indications Act, 1999 celebrated its 12th birthday since the day of enforcement, Unfortunately, it is still considered to be in its initial stages. In fact, when I tried to search whether the IPAB or Courts have interpreted the meaning of the term "Producer" defined in Section 2(1)(k) of the Geographical Indications Act, 1999, I could not find a single document throwing light on this issue.  Section 2(1)(k) of GI Act, 1999 defines the term producer as "Producer‟ in relation to goods, means any person who, if such goods are agricultural goods, produces the goods a...

WHAT TO EXPECT OUT OF  WTO MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE, NAIROBI (2015) -CREDIBLE DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES? *Long Post Ahead. The issues of Food security, storage subsidies and peace clause are going heat up the negotiations during the World Trade Organization (WTO) 10 th Ministerial Conference scheduled during 15-18 December 2015, at the KICC in Nairobi, Kenya. India had taken a firm stand on the issues at hand stand during the previous Ministerial Conference held in 2013 at Bali, Indonesia. If India manages to get support during this ministerial conference then it will be considered as one of the major political success. As Joseph Glitz in his book “Globalization and Its Discontents” described, globalization has reduced the sense of isolation felt in much of the developing world and has given many people in the developing countries access to knowledge well beyond the reach of the wealthiest in any country a century ago. Opening up to international trade has helped many cou...