http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/65496 2026-10-10T02:43:44Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/65510 Title: Human Ingenuity, Emerging Technologies & IPR – Need for setting Doctrine of Constitutional Morality as Standard Authors: Murthy, M R Sreenivasa; Kandadai, Syamala Abstract: Human ingenuity erased the boundaries of innovations, and created such technologies which the past generations wouldn’t have dreamed of. Intellectual Property Rights are to promote and encourage only those innovations which are contributing for the societal development and common good and complies with the social morality standard. As long as the social morality standard laid down in IPR is not influenced by the dominant cultural norms of a society; by marginalizing the minority or individual perspectives, it can represent the societal demands as a whole. Butwhat if the social morality standard is representing only the majority in the society and is in direct conflict with the constitutional morality, the normative framework offered by our constitution which includes majority, minority and even one individual’s perspective within its ambit? Constitutional morality provides a stable, principled foundation that transcends societal changes and biases and promotes the principles of inclusive development, equality, justice, dignity and fraternity. Post Navtej Singh Johar, Joseph Shine and other judgments, thequestion arise that whether the IP regulators can reject the grant of IP protection to an invention which though is complying with the social morality standard, but fails to comply with the constitutional morality standard? Whether the approach of the US Supreme Court in cases such as Bedford and Juicy Whip I, applying ‘progressive provision’ laid down in Article I, § 8, Clause 8 of the American constitution to IP cases, on and above the legislative limitations, illustrates the duty of the courts to act beyond legislative limitations to uphold the constitutional morality when necessity demands? The paper argues that applying constitutional morality as a catalyst over social morality provides a more consistent, equitable, and principled basis for navigating the complex landscape of emerging technologies and IPR. This paper explores the distinction between constitutional morality and social orality, proposing the former as a guiding principle to harmonize the intersection of human ingenuity, technological advancement and IPR. Page(s): 115-125 2025-03-01T00:00:00Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/65509 Title: Steps towards Patenting Innovations for a Sustainable Startup Ecosystem Authors: Pattnaik, Amarendra; Dash, Parimita Abstract: However good a product may be, sooner or later, competition will catch up and there will be me-too products in the market. The best way to beat this product imitation is through innovation in products and processes. New products catch eyeballs and sell. But innovation is neither easy nor cheap. A huge amount of money has to be invested in R&D for innovation and therefore there is a need to prevent imitation by others. This is particularly relevant for Startups who operate on a tight purse. Such prevention can be done through patents. Once the innovator patents the innovation, he has a legal right over his innovation for twenty years in India and others can’t imitate it. This helps the innovators to have a better market for the product and also they get a better return on investment in R&D. In this article, the authors have emphasized how patents are a business necessity for Startups and how in India patent applications are filed and patents are granted. Page(s): 126-133 2025-03-01T00:00:00Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/65508 Title: Protection of Fruits through Trademarks: Export Growth in India Authors: Ghate, Utkarsh; Kulkarni, Hema Abstract: Trademarks are increasingly used to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) on fruits such as Avacados by Dole Company of USA globally. For, trademarks have very long life than plant variety protection with just 25-30 years life. India’s fruits export is rising rapidly with mangoes (Alphanso), Apples (Shimla), Banana (G9 i.e. Grand Naine), amongst others. India has started exporting special fruit varieties such as “Nendran” from Kerala to Gulf using special packaging technique. India can benefit by promoting trade mark for uniform colour, size, shape &taste, aroma fruits by agri-enterprises for rapid growth in the fruits export. Similar effort is needed for other fruit species & varieties e.g. Guava (Alahabadi), Pineapple, Black Grapes (Medak), Green Gapes (Nasik) Sapota (Gholvad, Palghar), etc. this will help to improve farmers’ income & India’s foreign investments & exchange. Page(s): 134-137 2025-03-01T00:00:00Z http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/65507 Title: Existing Knowledge, Skilled Person and Inventive Step under Indian Patent Law and the Problem of Borrowings Authors: Tandon, Victor Vaibhav; Siwal, Ashwini Abstract: Assessment of inventive step is difficult, with several tests being laid down for the same in different jurisdictions. However, borrowing such tests, e.g. the Windsurfing test, the TSM test, or the concept ofPHOSITA from U.S. Law, into Indian jurisprudence must be done with caution. As we argue here, Indian Law has certain peculiarities- (i) it requires something more than a mere difference from prior art; it requires technical advance compared to existing knowledge, and (ii) the person judging such technical advance for existence of obviousness is not ordinary, not average nor super-skilled but a capable skilled person. Any interpretation or borrowing which loses sight of this statutory requirements can result in interpreting the skilled person as less capable than what the Indian Act/ legislature expected it to be. This can result in lowering the inventive step standard. This can have repercussions on the quality of granted patents, since it is the quality of innovation and not merely the quantum thereof which ought to matter. Page(s): 138-150 2025-03-01T00:00:00Z