Intellectual Property

With agricultural companies filing patents for chemical composition of substances to equipment to gene sequences and methods of genetic transformation, a controversy has emerged in the IPR of GM seeds. These contain man-made gene sequences. This is making companies seek indirect patent rights on the seed itself. ...

With Monsanto filing claims against various Indian seed companies and invoking arbitration proceedings, nearly 2/3 of the cotton seed industry and farmers are questioning the alleged patent rights of Monsanto. It is important to examine the patent issue involved to gain clarity on the matter...

Once a transgenic plant variety is approved and released, others can be created from it. When these further varieties seek registration, they must submit an NOC from the first developer. In the case of Bt cotton, this entity is Monsanto. Indian seed companies have to enter exploitative agreements with Monsanto to obtain NOC. This is a study of whether the NOC requirement is at all legal....

Foreign conglomerates seeking to invest and manufacture in India remain concerned about IP rights protection, especially patenting of computer-related inventions. The guidelines issued clarify the scope and protection of such inventions. Here is a look at the present status....

Standing among the top 12 biotechnology destinations in the world, India’s biotechnology is growing rapidly at a compound annual rate of 20%. Even so, patent filing in this field has decreased. This could be attributed to more stringent criteria for patentability and grant of patents in this domain....

Where Competition Law is based on the principle that competition is desirable in a free market, IP Laws seek to promote innovation and safeguard the interests of inventors by granting monopolies. The intersection between the two has prompted a long-standing debate and revealed the need to strike a balance, so as to safeguard the rights of innovators and at the same time protect consumers....

Once the time period of a patent expires, the rights lapse and the invention enters the public domain. Double Patenting – multiple patents for the same invention – is an issue quite ambiguous. In India, especially, this appears to be a grey area and poses a need for debate....

When prosecuting a patent application or defending a revocation, there are routine requests for amendments of patent claims or descriptions. This brings to light the ambiguity surrounding the nature and extent of permissible amendments....

In the face of a series of IPAB decisions, the so far unchallenged practice of filing divisional applications has come under a re-evaluation. A discussion on these changes brings forth the implications of these decisions on future applicants....