Recent Developments & Highlights w.r.t. Intellectual Property Law in India

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on August 26, 2020, has issued the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) (Amendment) Rules, 2020 to further amend the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Rules, 2002. 
• Manufacturers, service providers, advertising agencies as well as brand endorsers will now need to adhere to a set of guidelines that are being finalized by The Ministry of Consumer Affairs to prevent misleading advertisements and protect consumer interests as The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, has released a draft of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Necessary Due Diligence for Endorsement of Advertisements) Guidelines, 2020. For an advertisement to be considered valid, companies will need to ensure their ads are truthful, contain honest representation and make claims that can be substantiated. Views/comments/suggestions on the draft guidelines may be sent till 18th September, 2020 by email to dscpu-ca@nic.in
• The Trademarks Registry through a public notice dated August 26,2020 informed that it has decided to conduct Show-Cause Hearings through Video Conferencing provided that the applicant or authorized agent give consent for the same before September 5, 2020 at tlahearing-tmr@gov.in
• The National Digital Library of India has released the draft of India’s first Copyright Guide for Indian Libraries for public consultation. The deadline for submitting comments/feedback is September 30, 2020. 
• Ministry of Education is edging a National Intellectual Property Literacy initiative as part of the new National Education Policy 2020. 
• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has convened an inter-ministerial meeting on royalty payments on August 25, 2020. The meeting was chaired by DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra. 
• The Intellectual Property Appellate (IPAB) has stayed the order of the Deputy Controller revoking Indian Patent IN262968 covering the product Ibrutinib vide an order dated June 10, 2020. The Hon’ble Board held that as per material available on record, the appellant has made a strong prima facie case in its favour. The balance of convenience is also in favour of the appellant and if interim order is not passed, the appellant will suffer irreparable loss and injury. 
• The Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) unveiled IPRS 2.0 with its state of the art license administration and announced the implementation of the world’s most advanced operating system to enhance the monetization capacity for copyright societies. IPRS 2.0 also includes state-of-the-art license administration. Strategic deals with leading brands, digital music services, and OTT players have already opened new revenue for its members: YouTube, Facebook, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, ALTBalaji, or Ola, to name a few. With its scalable system, the society can accurately process quadrillion lines of data and claim royalties across all broadcast and digital platforms. 
• The Indian Patent Office has granted a patent bearing Patent Application No. 640/CHENP/2012 entitled “Nitrogen containing spiro-ring compound and medicinal use of same” covering the commercial product, Delgocitinib.
• Uttar Pradesh government created a corpus worth Rs 150 crore to encourage start-ups in UP, funding them at the stages of ideation, patent registration, participation in domestic and international events, among other things. 
• Amazon has obtained patent in India for its method of auto authentication of mobile transactions based on user’s location and proximity of merchant location by order dated August 11, 2020. Amazon had filed the application for the patent in 2012. 
• The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has stayed the order issued by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks revoking Novartis’ patent over lung cancer drug Ceritinib. Ceritinib, developed and patented by Novartis (IN 276026, US 8377921) is a prescription drug used for treatment of non-small lung cancer. Novartis obtained an Indian patent on September 28, 2016. The Swiss drugmaker has been selling the drug under the brand name ‘Spexib’ in India and ‘Zykadia’ globally. 
• The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has upheld the patentability of Computer Related Inventions (CRI ) in Ferid AllaniVs. Assistant Controller of Patents and Designs, clarifying that the invention in question had a significant technical contribution to the state of art and possesses critical technical effect and thus deserves to be patented.