Over two hundred people drawn from nine countries gathered over an Indian winter's weekend in downtown New Delhi for a seminar hosted by AIPPI India dealing with IP issues of interest in the South Asian region. In a way, this seminar was a first rehearsal for the Executive Committee Meeting that will be held in India in the city of Hyderabad in 2011.

The Bureau of AIPPI was represented by the President, Ronald E. Myrick (US), the Secretary General, Michael J. Brunner (UK) and the author. That three Bureau members attended underscores the importance of India in the world of intellectual property.


The seminar was honoured by the presence as Chief Guest of His Honour Chief Justice Mukundakam Sharma of the Delhi High Court. Dr Sharma performed the ceremonial invocation of lighting the lamp, and gave a keynote address that explained the manner in which IP litigation is handled in his court. His Honour's message was that the Indian Court system has modernised, that litigation is conducted swiftly, Judges hearing IP cases are specialists in the field, and that the Courts offer remedies that are significant and enforceable. A fellow member of the Delhi High Court, His Honour Justice S.K. Kaul, chaired a later session.

The seminar also was supported by two officers of WIPO, namely Dr Puspendra Rai (a native of India), who is presently Acting Director of the Intellectual Property and Economic Development Division, and Mr Alan Datri (US), a Senior Counsellor in the Madrid & Hague Strategic Development Section.

The sessions covered the following topics:

• Online piracy and Internet Issues
• Patent law in India. During this session the audience learned of the unfortunate use of pre-grant oppositions to slow the grant of patents, for years even.
• The possibility of a new international treaty dealing with Intellectual Property Privilege for the clients of IP advisors. This is an initiative of AIPPI, as reported elsewhere in this newsletter, and the session was chaired by Mike Brunner, with Ron Myrick making a substantive presentation.
• Geographical Indications, Traditional Knowledge and Farmers Rights. This is a subject of great interest in India, particularly the benefit sharing aspect. Prof Anil Gupta of the National Innovation Foundation in Ahmedabad (www.nifindia.org) provided an inspiring insight into 'green grassroots innovation' and the public beneficial use of traditional knowledge in the agricultural and medical fields.
• Madrid Protocol
• Outsourcing issues
• WIPO's Development Agenda
• Emerging Areas in patent law, especially in the pharmaceutical field
• Competition law
• Evidence in IP matters
• Data Protection and Exclusivity.

It is believed that the seminar's proceedings ultimately will be published by the Indian National Group.

Congratulations go to the Indian National Group for staging this seminar, and I am hopeful of similar events in other cities in India to engage practitioners and industrialists in the lead up to the Hyderabad EXCO meeting in 2011.

The three Bureau members travelled on to Mumbai after the Delhi seminar and gave presentations on a range of topics at an evening seminar attended by a hundred IP practitioners, as well as holding a meeting with the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trade Marks, Mr. V. Ravi.