GENERAL IPR

RANBAXY ACQUIRES PRODUCT RIGHTS AND MANUFACTURING FACILITY FROM BIOVEL
Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy), India's largest pharmaceutical company has got into an agreement with Biovel Lifesciences Private Limited (Biovel), Bangalore, for the possession of product rights and a manufacturing facility, from Biovel. This deal will give an entry stage to Ranbaxy to manufacture vaccines and biotherapeutics as it will now have access to all of Biovel's products, pipeline, IP, Know-How and manufacturing facility located in Bangalore.

The Typhoid Vi antigen and Hib conjugate vaccines, for which, Biovel has received regulatory approval for India are the products that are included in the deal.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited has customers in over 125 countries around the world and has an expanding international portfolio of partnerships, joint ventures and alliances, ground operations in 46 countries and manufacturing operations in 7 countries.

PARIS HILTON SUED FOR COPYING SHOE DESIGN
Paris Hilton, the socialite heiress is facing an infringement lawsuit for allegedly stealing a design from Gwyneth Shoes, a New York-based shoe company. The company alleges that Hilton had copied their design for her own line of footwear.

Hilton has been accused of stealing the idea to incorporate a pink coloured heart-shaped pad on her heels' insoles, a design the company claims to have developed and filed for a patent in 2007. Hilton released her range of footwear with the same design in February 2008. Gwyneth Shoes is suing Hilton for trademark and patent infringement and insists that Hilton must hand over every pair of shoes that feature the pink heart.

BAIDU WINS MUSIC PIRACY CASE
Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Hong Kong and Warner Music, Hong Kong had filed a lawsuit in February 2008 claiming that China's top search engine Baidu infringes their copyrights and demanded that the music links be removed.

The Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court has ruled the case in favour of Baidu, pronouncing that its links to music downloads do not amount to piracy. The court ruled that Beijing-based Baidu offered the searching service for pirated MP3 files, but is not actually in the piracy of the music and therefore is not liable to pay any damages.

TRADEMARK

BHARTI WAL-MART FACES TRADEMARK OPPOSITION
Bharti Wal-Mart, the Indian joint venture between US retail giant Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises, is facing opposition to registering its 'Great Value' brand in the country.
In 2008 Bharti Wal-Mart had filed 12 applications to trademark the logo, many of which have been opposed. Usually it takes around two years to process a trademark application before they being put in the public domain, under Indian laws. A time of four months is given to make any opposition to the application.

PATENT

JET AIRWAYS IN PATENT INFRINGEMENT CASE
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., a Britain-based airway company has filed a case against Jet Airways (India) Ltd. in a United Kingdom court, alleging infringement of its patent on flatbed seats for the premium class. Virgin Atlantic holds the patent and design rights for the flatbed seating system in several countries, including in the UK.

Virgin had filed for patent in India for the design and technology of the seats and the herringbone configuration which is used in its upper class, and is similar to the first or business classes on other carriers. Jet Airways had objected to the patent claim. Virgin has already been granted patents in multiple jurisdictions and has a pending patent in India.

EUROPEAN PATENT FOR BAJAJ AUTO'S EXHAUSTEC
The Munich-headquartered European Patent Office has granted a patent to a leading Indian auto maker Bajaj Auto for its ExhausTEC technology. This technology will help in improving the performance of a two-wheeler, especially the power in a single cylinder four stroke engine.

Over 50 lakh two-wheelers fitted with this technology have already been manufactured and sold by Bajaj Auto since 2004. ExhausTEC technology has been granted an Indian patent which is valid till 2024.

ExhausTEC in combination with Bajaj's patented DTS-i twin spark technology collectively increase fuel efficiency and performance.

NOKIA WINS IPCOM PATENT SUIT
Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, has won a 3-year long patent dispute with German-based IPCom. London's High Court ruled in Nokia's favor that it had not infringed two IPCom patents relating to mobile network technology as the patents were invalid.

IPCom had alleged that Nokia was infringing its patents involved in the technology used to connect mobile phones to wireless networks. Nokia responded by initiating court proceedings in the UK against 15 IPCom patents - including the two which were ruled invalid. Earlier this month the German Federal Patent Court in Munich had found another IPCom patent invalid. Nokia would seek to recover its legal costs from IPCom as a result of the UK ruling.

US PATENT FOR APPLE'S TABLET?
The U.S. Patent Office granted a number of patents to Apple Inc. just before the launch of its tablet. The patent entitled "Proximity Detector in Handheld Device" doesn't cover the tablet itself but is a way of data entry into it.

The patent defines what a portable device or rather the tablet would do to perceive an object approaching it, identify the object and then provide a suitable reaction. It depicts how a tablet could sense a finger or stylus before it really touches the surface of the tablet or touchscreen, and then deliver the suitable response.

Apple was also granted patents relating to the management of wireless channel bandwidth, with applications in video conferencing, color management, an image-rotation patent, and two patents, covering switching IC ports to card slots, and timeline-based handling of audio and video tracks.

COPYRIGHT

SALMAN KHAN AND MAKERS OF VEER GET HC NOTICE

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to actor Salman Khan and director Anil Sharma for allegedly lifting some concepts for their film 'Veer', from a book 'Trilogy of Wisdom' by Pavan Choudary without his consent. The idea and concept that India should not be a 'Sone Ki Chidiya' (Golden bird) but 'Baaj' (hawk) which was mentioned in his book was copied and adapted in the film.

Mr. Pavan Choudary has sought Rs 20 lakh from the film makers as damages for the alleged violation of his copyright and illegal gains by lifting a portion from his book. He also pleaded that the court should stay the screening of the film.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT BY ANTI-PIRACY AGENCY
France's new internet agency set up by the French government's web police force to protect the rights of artists and to stop illegal down loaders is facing legal action for using a copyrighted design for its logo called Hadopi. Plan Creatif, the design agency that created the Hadopi logo has admitted that it used the typeface or font by mistake.

Within some hours of its launch, it was forced to make an apology for using a logo or typeface that belonged to France Telecom without its permission.

Jean-Francois Porchez, the graphic designer who created the distinctive "Bonjour" font and sold it entirely to France Telecom spotted the error. Mr Porchez is in view of taking legal action against the government for illegal use of his design.