Cipla, Alibaba, Arkansas Political Ads: Intellectual Property

(This is a daily report on global news about patents, trademarks, copyright and other intellectual property topics. To be sent this column daily, click SALT IPREPORT .)

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Cipla Ltd., a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company, has asked India’s intellectual property regulators to revoke patents covering Novartis AG’s respiratory drug Indacaterol, The Hindu newspaper reported.

The Indian drug company is arguing that the need for better public access to the drug and the small amount of the product Novartis ships to India mean the patent should be revoked, according to the newspaper.

The Novartis product costs 400 percent more than Cipla’s generic version, the company said, according to The Hindu.

A spokesman for Basel, Switzerland’s Novartis told the newspaper it hasn’t received notice from Indian authorities about the issue.

Photographer’s Patents Invalid, Too Abstract, Court Says

In a 2013 case involving patents covering the selection and transmission of photos from athletic events, a federal court in Los Angeles said the inventions were invalid.

U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said Oct. 28 that three patents a Thousand Oaks, California-based photographer claimed were infringed by Capstone Photography Inc., of Middlefield, Connecticut, covered a technology that wasn’t entitled to patent protection. The process described by the patents wasn’t novel, the court said.

Peter H. Wolf had said his patents 6,985,875, 7,047,214 and 7,870,035 were infringed and that the infringement was willful. Judge Snyder said all three patents were directed at abstract ideas, which are not patentable, and weren’t sufficiently inventive.

The case is Peter H. Wolf v. Capstone Photography Inc., 2:13-cv-09573, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

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Trademark

Alibaba Group Warns About Infringing Its ‘Double Eleven’ Marks

Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., China’s largest e-commerce company, has warned Chinese publishers against running promotions for that country’s Singles Day that use its “Double Eleven” motif without authorization, India’s NDTV news website reported.

“Double Eleven” is used in connection with the Singles’ Day holiday on Nov. 11, for which single consumers buy gifts for themselves, according to NDTV.

Alibaba’s T-Mall.com marketplace placed a letter containing the warning in a social media account belonging to Beijing-based JD.com, a rival, NDTV reported.

Companies that infringe its Double Eleven trademarks will be sued, including media outlets that publish infringing ads, Alibaba said in its letter, and NDTV reported.

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Copyrights

Arkansas Democrat’s Ads Accused of Infringing Gatorade Ad

The Arkansas Democratic Party is accused of infringing the copyright for a 1991 ad for Gatorade that featured basketball star Michael Jordan, the Arkansas News reported.

The ad campaign used the slogan “Be Like Mike.” An ad agency claims six “I Believe in Mike” radio ads for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross infringe, according to the Arkansas News.

The head of the Arkansas Republican Party called for removal of the ads and accused the Democrats of trying to deceive voters through the use of purloined intellectual property, the Arkansas News reported.

An attorney for the Arkansas Democratic Party responded in a letter saying the election ads don’t contain stolen lyrics or music and don’t infringe, according to the newspaper.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Victoria Slind-Flor in San Francisco at [e-mail] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at [e-mail] David Glovin