By Prashant Reddy T.
This project aims to explore the history and politics of India’s intellectual property law and policy regime. It aims at unravelling and explaining the development of India’s intellectual property law and policy in modern times, focusing on different industries and sectors such as pharmaceuticals, book publishing, cinema, music, internet intermediaries, basmati rice, religion and traditional knowledge. A significant focus of the project is the evolution of India’s pharmaceutical patent policy, starting from 1948 till the Indian Supreme Court’s judgment in the famous Glivec case. The other major focus area is the evolution of Indian copyright policy. In the past, India has been responsible for pushing for major reforms to the Berne Convention especially with regard to educational use exceptions. This remains a tricky area for copyright policy in India. Some of the more recent contentious issues within Indian copyright policy pertain to the liability of internet intermediaries and certain mandatory royalty sharing rights for Indian authors. The last three subject areas of this project are the operation of the Indian traditional knowledge digital library (TKDL), India’s venture to protect basmati rice as a GI and finally, the intersection of religion and IP law in India.
The outcome of this project is a book titled “Create, Copy, Disrupt: India’s Intellectual Property Dilemma”, authored by Prashant Reddy T. and Sumathi Chandrashekharan, which has been published by Oxford University Press in 2017.
Last updated on 13 Mar 2017 .
