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You Are Free to Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ – Warner’s Copyright Claim Rejected

  'Happy Birthday' song is considered to be the most sung song in the world. The song is not only rendered on birthdays, but also captured in various forms such as sound recordings, videos, etc. A search on YouTube with the phrase, 'Happy Birthday', yields About 3,770,000 results, indicating its popularity. The 'Happy Birthday' song includes two elements, lyrics and musical composition. Simply put, it includes the words and the tune.     Warner/Chappell Music was claiming copyright ownership of the lyrics, and…
September 24, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 681Views 0Like
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The featured image shows the word copyright wrtitten in blue colour which is illuminated. The post is about the copyright vesting in sound recordings in pre 1972 music in California. To know more, please click here.

Can I Use your Photo in my Blog? – Copyright V. Fair Use

In a recent decision by the 11th Circuit Court in USA, Katz v. Chevaldina, the question of whether using a photograph to criticize a person's business activities amounted to copyright infringement was raised. The Court answered that it was not copyright infringement, but amounted to fair use as the use was for criticism and transformative. The Court also pointed out that the use lacked any commercial advantage to the blogger, and was strictly meant for criticism. Brief background is as…
September 23, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 563Views 0Like
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Gilead, IPA, Natco & The Bells of Harmony

  Pharmaceutical industries seem to be making headlines this season. Over the past few weeks there have been numerous news reports with respect to the pharmaceutical industry, SiNApSE alone has covered many of these in its earlier blog posts. The issues range from rejection of patent applications based on the ever so controversial section 3(d) as observed in the case of Pfizer’s drug “Tofacitinib” to the resurrection of the nightmare of many pharmaceutical companies, namely “the COMPULSORY LICENSE” as seen in…
September 18, 2015 Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 550Views 0Like
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Idols, Patents and Ganesha- Happy Vinayaka Chavithi!

The Hindu God Ganesha is known as the “herald of auspicious beginnings” and considered to be the most “beloved deity of all” Ganesh Chaturthi, an auspicious festival observed in the month of Bhadra (mid August – mid September) according to the Hindu calendar is celebrated with utmost devotion and joy in many states in India and even outside the country. Ganesha, is known by 108 different names and is considered to be a symbol of good fortune, wisdom, prosperity and…
September 17, 2015 Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 873Views 0Like
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Let’s Go Crazy – Is the Copyright Ruling Fair?

  Stephanie Lenz uploaded a video of her child dancing to Prince's tune - Let's Go Crazy, to YouTube. In the video, the child is seen making moves, while the song is played in the background. The video was uploaded in 2007 on YouTube. Universal Music, the owner of the sound recording, was not too happy with the use of the music in the video, which was getting great attention. UM sent a DMCA take down notice to YouTube, and YouTube…
September 16, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 636Views 0Like
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Dr. Kalyan advices Christ University, Bangalore law students about the abundant career opportunities in the IP industry.

Dr. Kalyan delivered a lecture on ‘Intellectuals and Lawyers’ organised by the School of Law Christ University’s (SLCU) Intellectual Property Rights Committee. Dr. Kalyan provided an overview of IP and then went on to discuss the different career prospects available in the field. The lecture was attended by students and faculty from SLCU. Date : 16/09/2015 [button link="http://www.sinapseblog.com/ip-career-in-india-choices-and-opportunities/" newwindow="yes"] Read more[/button]
September 16, 2015 Intellectual Property 0Comment 745Views 0Like
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IP Career in India – Choices and Opportunities

Intellectual Property (IP) opens doors to a plethora of career opportunities and choices. The options to work in IP are not only numerous, but also dynamic, and covering all of them in one article is close to impossible. In this post, we have covered some obvious career opportunities open for an aspiring IP professional. Inter-Disciplinary Field With very few exceptions, IP as a field is inter-disciplinary, and multi-disciplinary expertise is an essential element for success in the field. From science…
September 16, 2015 Intellectual Property 0Comment 2206Views 0Like
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And the lawsuit goes to….

Recently the Internet domain registrar, GoDaddy had its Oscar-worthy moment, winning against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (‘Academy’ for brevity). The Academy had accused the Scottsdale, Arizona based company of cyber squatting. Originally filed in 2010, the lawsuit was filed by the Academy, stating that GoDaddy was allowing its customers "to “park” their pages and  share in the revenue" collected from the advertisements on the said pages. Further the Academy stated that the internet domain registrar had…
September 14, 2015 Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 8Views 0Like
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TiVo and Patent Infringement

  The makers of the famous TiVo DVR systems, TiVo Inc. are taking Samsung to court over the alleged patent infringement of four of their patents. Deja vu? Feels like we’ve heard this story before, haven’t we? Well, TiVo loves the litigation game and has taken several big companies, such as EchoStar/Dish, AT&T, Motorola, Verizon and Cisco, to court for infringing its patents, winning almost a whopping $1.6 billion in damages.   So why is TiVo suing Samsung this time? According to…
September 11, 2015 Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 569Views 0Like
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