28th July, 2009

Indian generics loosing market to their MNC partners

Recently there is a decline in the economical growth rate of Indian generics. Major Indian pharmaceutical companies selling out their generic version of the parent drugs at high value to the abroad drug companies. For instance, Dr Reddy’s in June 2009 was signed up by UK based GSK and in the due course Dr. Reddy’s more than 100 drug brands were sold to Africa, Middle east, Asia Pacific and parts of the world. Very similarly Claris Lifesciences also had a deal for 15 injectible products to Pfizer and later on Pfizer also acquired Aurobindo pharma’s renown drugs and sold at high price to US companies. Nowadays this is observed that Indian generics are loosing market value of the copycat versions of the parent drugs. Though initially global innovator companies and Indian pharma companies have focused on two different aspects of the drug market. Foreign discovery companies gave attention in developing new invention and came up with new drugs worth millions of dollars, in contrast Indian companies concentrated low-cost versions of off-patent drugs due to their low budget. There are a large number of off patent drugs going to be expired by 2010-11.Global firms have now started accepting the low-cost versions of drug as an integral part of the market along with their innovative drug development process. With a very few patents left Indian firms can no longer survive on their traditional business trend and hence change in business strategy is almost essential to exist in the world of generics.

Indian drugs facing trouble in entering South Africa

According to the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), it is reported that Chinese drugs holding Indian labels are exported in West Africa which is causing a serious problem for the Indian drug market to enter to the African market. Another instance where Chinese made drugs are sold at Nigeria with Indian labels. In this process Indian pharma companies have to be extremely careful and ensure that only genuine and clinically tested safe drugs are exported from India and made available to the African public. This in turn reduces the access to low cost generics worldwide due to the counterfeits and generic violations, which needs to be worked on.

South African government knows about this and trying to increase the access of generic drugs throughout South Africa. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is well equipped to deal with these challenges and expected to benefit from establishing links with South Africa. In this regard, the Pharmexcil will also visit South African neighbor countries to review this issue.

ICANN LAUNCHES EUDRP CONSULTATION

The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), proposed by WIPO in 1999 and accepted as an international standard for resolving domain name disputes outside the traditional courts, was designed to discourage and resolve the abusive registration of trademarks as domain names. Under the UDRP, a complainant must demonstrate that the disputed domain name is identical or similar to its trademark, that the respondent does not have a right or legitimate interest in the domain name. Disputes are resolved by panelists drawn from the WIPO Center’s list of trademark specialists and the domain name registration in question is suspended during the proceedings. After reviewing, panelists submit their decision within 14 days. If a panelist’s decision to transfer a domain name is not challenged in a competent court within ten days, the registrar is legally bound to implement the panelist’s decision. The entire case lasts normally for about two months.

The Internet governance body ICANN is inviting comments on a proposal to introduce paperless Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) proceedings. The proposal comes from WIPO, which handles the majority of UDRP disputes. The UDRP enables IP rights owners to challenge the registration of domain names which they believe infringe their rights.

The WIPO proposal is available for review for 30 days and comments can be submitted to ICANN by email and they can be viewed online. The proposal suggests that paper be removed from the UDRP process altogether, with complaints being filed and responded to electronically, and identifies how the UDRP rules would need to be changed to accommodate electronic communications.

Under a pilot programme, the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) offers complainants the ability to file UDRP complaints using an authenticated web-based system.
Recognizing the ubiquitous use of Internet-based communications, and as a mark of environmental responsibility, the WIPO Center submitted a proposal to ICANN, in December 2008, to remove the requirement to submit and distribute paper copies of pleadings relating to the UDRP process, through email. WIPO’s so-called “eUDRP Intitiative” seeks to benefit all parties by eliminating the use of vast quantities of paper and improving the timeliness of UDRP proceeding without prejudicing either complainants or respondents. WIPO’s eUDRP Initiative is currently under consideration by ICANN.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON USPTO’S  PEER-TO-PATENT PROJECT

Peer-To-Patent, a US patent office (USPTO) programme to create an open network of patent reviewers has been closed down. The Office has scrapped the scheme that might have helped the USPTO to avoid issuing overly broad or non-unique innovations. Established two years ago, the programme was designed to pilot a community based approach to the reviewing of patent applications, with a hope that it could improve the quality of information available to patent examiners deciding on whether a patent should be granted

The Peer-to-Patent project, spearheaded by Beth Noveck, Deputy U.S. CTO for open government, is one successful example of how citizens can be invloved the actual work of governing. The U.S. Patent Office has chosen not to renew the project. Peer-to-Patent project has fallen victim, says its leaders, to the country's troubled economic situation.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has placed a moratorium on extending the pilot beyond June 2009 until they can complete a full evaluation of the impact Peer-to-Patent has had on the quality of the examination process. Those who have spent money, time, and energy on Peer-to-Patent project remain hopeful that the program will be renewed in the near future, either as an extended pilot or a standard part of USPTO practice.

The Peer-to-Patent project was an experiment in fixing the patent mess through citizen-expert engagement and it worked for two whole years. Mark Webbink, Executive Director of the Center for Patent Innovations at New York Law School, writes that while the Patent Office has chosen not to renew the project it technically soldiers on while several dozen patents are still under consideration. He mentioned, “Peer-to-Patent has not closed shop. The only thing that has happened is that the USPTO has elected to cease accepting new applications at this time. We still have more than 70 applications pending review, so we would prefer people did not get the wrong idea. There is still plenty of work to be done”.

Applications that had been accepted will continue to be processed through the system, but no more new applications will be accepted for entry into the community review system.

NEW ZEALAND GOVT. TO ABANDON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A SECTION OF COPYRIGHT AMENDMENT ACT
The New Zealand Government is seeking feedback on new proposals to deal with copyright infringers by cutting off their access to internet.

Section 92A of the country's Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act was due to come into effect on February 28 this year, but the government was forced to abandon the implementation of the section after a public uproar against the change and because of the failure of the ISPs and copyright owners to agree on a consensus..
The New Zealand Internet Blackout was an online protest spearheaded by the Creative Freedom Foundation NZ against changes to Section 92A of the Copyright Act. The protest originated at the 2009 Kiwi Foo Camp in Warkworth and continued for seven days from 16-23 February. Internet users changed their avatars to black squares, to symbolise what opponents of Section 92A regard as guilt by accusation.

About 200 people, including internet service provider (ISP) representatives, artists, musicians, writers, and bloggers — most of them holding up plain black placards, and some with taped mouths — protested and presented a petition outside the Parliament on 19 February.
On February 23 the Prime Minister John Key announced that Section 92A would be delayed until March 27 and on March 23rd, it was announced that Section 92A would be removed and redrafted.

USPTO E-OFFICE ACTION PROGRAM INITIATED

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 21, announced the launch of the e-Office Action program following a successful pilot version of the program.  The program allows participating patent applicants to receive e-mail notifications of office communications, rather than receiving the usual paper notifications by regular mail.  An e-mail notice is sent to participants in the e-Office action program when an office communication is available for viewing and downloading.
 
According to John Doll, USPTO's Acting Director, the e-Office Action pilot program has, "dramatically reduced paper processing and mailing costs and expedited notification allowing applicants to take full advantage of their time period for reply to an office action."  The USPTO would enact some enhancements to the e-Office Action system once the IT infrastructure allows for such enhancement modifications.

Participation in this program is optional and is available to any registered attorney or agent, or pro se inventor, prosecuting a patent application associated with a customer number.  Participants can also opt-out of the e-Office Action program at any time and return to receiving office communications through regular mail.  This e-Office Action program covers provisional and non-provisional applications including utility, plant, design, and reissue applications and national stage applications. However, international applications, reexamination proceedings, and interference proceedings are excluded from the program.

AUTHENTEC ADDS ANOTHER PATENT TO ITS IP PORTFOLIO

AuthenTec, a provider of smart fingerprint sensors and solutions, has expanded its patent portfolio with the addition of four U.S. patents to its intellectual property portfolio. Originally filed by Veridicom, these four patents, for fingerprint sensing, imaging and sensor packaging, are among the first IP created for the biometrics industry.

The company now holds 115 (filed or pending) U.S. patents, as well as additional foreign patent counterparts which include 32 U.S. patents from its recent purchase of Atrua Technologies. "AuthenTec's market leadership is built on a strong foundation of intellectual property, and we believe we've further extended our lead in the market with our growing portfolio of patents," said AuthenTec VP and General Counsel Frederick Jorgenson. He said, "We believe that this IP gives us a strong competitive advantage and the ability to continue to evolve fingerprint sensors beyond authentication to 'smart sensors' that offer multiple functions, features and secure management of a user's digital identity in next generation PCs, netbooks, smart phones and mobile devices."

BACKWEB ALLEGES SYMANTEC INFRINGED PATENTS

BackWeb Technologies Ltd. has amended a patent infringement lawsuit filed earlier to include Symantec Corp.

San Jose-based BackWeb Technologies Ltd. filed suit in March in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Microsoft Corp. and later added Sybase Inc. and its subsidiary iAnywhere.

BackWeb said it added Cupertino-based Symantec Corp. as it alleges that the company's Altiris product infringes three BackWeb patents covering methods for transmitting information between a remote network and a local computer.

The Symantec Altiris product is used by companies for centrally managing IT infrastructures.

BackWeb is seeking damages, an injunction and a declaration by the court that Symantec’s software products infringe its patents.

The lawsuit against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft alleged infringement of the same three patents as well as a fourth BackWeb patent.

EFF TO DROP LAWSUIT AGAINST APPLE            

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is dropping its lawsuit against Apple after the company withdrew its legal threats against Bluwiki. In April the EFF had filed suit against Apple to defend the First Amendment rights of an operator of a noncommercial, public Internet ‘wiki’ site known as BluWiki. EFF and the San Francisco law firm of Keker & Van Nest represent OdioWorks LLC, which runs the BluWiki webs site. The site operated by OdioWorks as a public service, is entirely noncommercial and like many “wiki” platforms, such as Wikipedia, it’s open to the public for mutual authoring and editing on any topic.

When some BluWiki users began a discussion about making some Apple iPods and iPhones interoperate with software other than Apple’s own iTunes, Apple lawyers demanded removal of the content. The attorneys alleged that the discussions constituted copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA’s) prohibition on circumventing copy protection measures. OdioWorks removed the discussions from the BluWiki site, fearing legal action by Apple.

OdioWorks has filed the lawsuit to justify its right to restore those discussions. The suit sought a declaratory judgment that the discussions didn’t violate any of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, and do not infringe any copyrights owned by Apple. Apple has mentioned in a letter on July 8, 2009 that it no longer has, nor will it have in the future, any objection to the publication of the iTunesDB Pages, withdrawing its cease and desist demands.

WIPO LAUNCHES ON-LINE TOOL TO FACILITATE ACCESS TO TARGETED SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION

An on-line tool was launched at WIPO’s headquarters on July 23, 2009. This public-private partnership aims to provide industrial property offices, universities and research institutes in least developed countries (LDCs) with free access and industrial property offices in certain developing countries with low cost access to selected online scientific and technical journals.

The Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi) program was rolled out by WIPO in partnership with various prominent science and technology publishers including the American Institute of Physics, Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, National Academy of Sciences, Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry, Sage Publications, Springer Science+Business Media, and Taylor & Francis. The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) provided advice and expertise gained from their similar programmes offering access to journals in their respective fields of activity.

The aRDi program will support developing countries in their creative pursuit and facilitate their integration into the global knowledge economy in tune with the objectives of WIPO’s Development Agenda. A key recommendation of the WIPO Development Agenda, calls on WIPO to facilitate “national offices of developing countries, especially LDCs, as well as their regional and sub-regional intellectual property organizations to access specialized databases for the purposes of patent searches.” The project was launched by WIPO Director General Francis Gurry at the High Level Forum on the Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for Prosperity and Development, with participation of ministers and senior officials from LDCs to explore practical approaches to IP policy implementation for wealth creation and development in these countries.
 
NANOSYS, NANOCO RESOLVE QUANTUM DOT PATENT DISPUTE

Nanosys Inc. and UK-based Nanoco Technologies are settling a lawsuit filed by the US firm alleging infringement of five patents involving quantum dot technology. The resolution will result in Nanoco terminating its US business for its core-shell quantum dots, sold through Sigma-Aldrich under the name "Lumidots,". But the company neither admits the patents' validity nor any infringement.
Nanosys says its quantum dot technology is currently being used in process-ready components for solid state lighting, solar power and electronic display systems, and that the firm has exclusive rights to more than 700 patents and applications covering "fundamental aspects of" its materials technology, including the quantum dots.