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SpicyIP Weekly Review (October 26-November 1)

/ By / Copyright, Drug Regulation, Patent, Trademark

Announcing the 2026 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition, a post on the ongoing Cadila-Hetero biosimilar dispute ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, and posts on the Indian Designs Office’s draft GUI Guidelines and the Trade Marks Registry’s proposed framework for the use of AI in proceedings. This and much more in this week’s SpicyIP Weekly Review. Anything we are missing out on? Drop a comment and let us know. Highlights of the Week Announcing the 2026 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on

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SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (02.11.2026)

/ By / Courses & Workshops, Opportunities

Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles. As always, we’ve rounded up a mix of developments, opportunities, and thoughtful reads from across the IP world along with a Bell of the Week that’s well worth revisiting. Bell of the Week: Who Gets Counted as an Inventor? When we think about the history of invention, we often think of the people whose names have become synonymous with a particular discovery or technology. But how much of this history do

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Letting the Plaintiff Examine Regulator’s Approvals: Unpacking the DHC’s Cadila-Hetero Discovery Order Ahead of the SC Hearing

/ By / Drug Regulation

[Thanks to Swaraj Barooah sharing an in-progress draft from a project he is working on examining cancer litigation in India. The questions in there led me to write this post.] Can a court say a company has no right to confidentiality in its regulatory data, and then hand that data to a rival’s expert in a sealed cover? The Delhi High Court decided it can. On 3 November 2026, the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up two Special Leave

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Announcing the 2026 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law

/ By / Biological Diversity, Copyright, Data Exclusivity, Design, Geographical Indication, Innovation, Opportunities, Patent, Trademark

Celebrating the 50th birth anniversary of Prof. Basheer, earlier this year, we had promised to return with the 2026 edition of the Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law. And we are now delighted to announce the launch of this year’s competition! A master with the pen, Prof. Basheer continues to inspire us with his ability to make complex legal ideas accessible to a wider audience. Our long-time readers, and the many others who have engaged with his work,

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Draft Trade Marks Manual 2026: Gaps DPIIT Must Address Before It Goes Final

/ By / Others, Trademark

On August 21, 2026, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIIT) published a Draft Manual on Trade Marks: Practice & Procedure 2026 (Draft Manual) in the Gazette of India, inviting public comments within fifteen days. Running over two hundred pages, the Draft Manual is meant to be the operational rulebook for examiners and registrars and a guide for prospective applicants of a mark. The Draft Manual is an updated version of the 2015 Manual. It has added a

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[Part I] RAM, Routine, and Rights: Looking at the IP Chapter in the EU-India Draft FTA

/ By / Copyright

The Draft India-EU FTA, dubbed the “mother of all deals”, includes a Chapter on Intellectual Property (IP) (Chapter 10), which has sparked concern about outlawing activities that Indian law allows for, such as Digital Archiving or creating temporary copies in RAM while routing web data. While India has not yet published the draft, the EU made it available on 15th September. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently reiterated that the FTA remains on track for finalisation by December 2026, with formal

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Can an Animation Be a Design? Examining India’s Draft GUI and Icon Design Guidelines, 2026

/ By / Design

The Indian Designs Office’s draft GUI Guidelines mark an important step following the Calcutta High Court’s decision in NEC Corporation v. Controller of Patents on the registrability of GUIs. Harshita Bhola writes on the Guidelines, noting that while they are a welcome improvement that could bring greater consistency and predictability to examination practices, the proposed requirement to submit separate representations of individual frames risks overlooking the creative contribution underlying an animation. Harshita Bhola is a 7th-semester B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student

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A Fake Judgment, an AI-Designed Mark and a Missing Declaration: What Do the TMR’s Draft AI Guidelines Actually Regulate?

/ By / Trademark

The draft Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Proceedings before the Trade Marks Registry seek to address the growing concerns around AI-generated fabricated citations and misleading evidence. However, as explained by Kaustub Boidi, the proposed framework leaves important questions unanswered about the Registry’s own verification responsibilities, the treatment of legitimate AI-assisted translations, and whether the prescribed consequences are proportionate to different forms of non-compliance. Kaustub is a final-year law student at SVKM’s NMIMS, Hyderabad. His interests lie in

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Hidden AI Prompts in Petitions: Why Indian Courts Should Take This Up Suo Motu

/ By / Others

As courts increasingly turn to AI tools for legal research and document processing, could hidden instructions embedded in pleadings manipulate the outputs they rely on? In this post, Rohit Pradhan examines the threat of prompt injection in judicial proceedings, distinguishes it from AI hallucinations, and proposes safeguards for e-filing systems and legal accountability in India. Rohit Pradhan is an IP litigator based in Delhi, practising before the Delhi High Court. Hidden AI Prompts in Petitions: Why Indian Courts Should Take

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Can You Trademark Your Way Out of Bad PR? Delhi HC Fines Niva Bupa Re. 1 for Trying

/ By / Trademark

Recently, the Delhi High Court, in Niva Bupa v. Vishal Rattewal imposed Re. 1 in notional costs after finding the plaintiffs’ suit to be a “misuse” of the IPD’s special jurisdiction. In this post, Aryan Agrawal examines whether the failure of a trademark infringement claim is sufficient to constitute such misuse, and whether the Court adequately considered the IPD Rules’ express inclusion of disparagement within its remit. Aryan is an advocate practising before the Delhi High Court and an Associate

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