Course in The Business of Intellectual Property

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) has transformed itself from the sole domain of an organisation's legal department to the integral part of its business policy. Although this has more to do with globalization and emergence of the World Trade Organisation, modern day business practices certainly demand the business managers to have a high level of knowledge about the regulatory framework surrounding IPR. This knowledge will be of immense help in strategically managing the Intellectual Property (IP) assets for gaining competitive advantage on a global basis.

This course will cover in detail the emergence of global IP architecture represented by the WTO-TRIPS Agreement, the legal and regulatory systems dealing with patents, trade marks, copyright, designs, trade secrets etc. Another area of focus will be the transactional issues in IP dealing with assignment, licensing, competition, securitisation, due diligence, valuation and various related issues in such transactions. Since most of the IP related transactions have a global impact, the course intends to provide a comparative perspective about the IP systems of USA, EU, UK and India. It also contains a brief module on IPR protection in China. Finally the course will also examine the ways in which IP regulations impact some of the important sectors like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, entertainment and E- Commerce

Case studies to be covered in the course include the following

Microsoft v. AT&T
Eisai Co. Ltd. v. Dr. Reddy's Labs. Inc.
Re Bernard Bilski
Symbian v. Comptroller General of Patents
Abbott Labs v Ranbaxy Europe Ltd
Novartis v. Union of India
Roche v. Cipla
Bajaj Auto v.TVS Motors
Pepsico v. Hindustan Coca Cola Ltd
Purolite v. Thermax
United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd
Bowie Bonds
NTP v. Research in Motion (Blackberry Patent Dispute)
European Commission's anti-trust investigations about Microsoft
L'Oréal v. Bellure (Comparative advertising)
The Pirate Bay Trial